Kheneg Mayoum fire, July 2017 خناق مايون · Kheneg Mayoum, Ouled Attia
The fire started on 8 July 2017 in Kheneg Mayoum, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 302 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 46th largest in Skikda since 2016 (of 102 with a page). Number 56 in Algeria in 2017, of 173.
The power measured by the satellite is low (9.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 302ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 8 Jul 2017 – 11 Jul 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 8 Jul
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 19
- in a single hotspot: 9 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 97MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
239 ha reached on 8 Jul5.2 %
-
64 ha reached on 8 Jul0.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Mixed forest92 %
- Other natural land6.7 %
- Broadleaved forest1.0 %
Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jul | 26.2 °C | 55 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 9 Jul | 25.0 °C | 50 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 10 Jul | 26.3 °C | 60 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Jul | 31.3 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Jul after | 29.1 °C | 50 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Jul after | 27.3 °C | 54 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Jul after | 25.9 °C | 54 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Jul after | 25.1 °C | 54 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Jul after | 24.2 °C | 59 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 17 Jul after | 24.3 °C | 61 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 18 Jul after | 26.6 °C | 55 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 19 Jul after | 28.5 °C | 54 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 Jul after | 25.7 °C | 56 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 21 Jul after | 25.1 °C | 60 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 11 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 19Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,545 haAin KechraJuly 2026 · 4 days · 25 km away
- 2,709 haKerkera الكركرةJuly 2023 · 6 days · 26 km away
- 1,892 haChekfa الشقفةAugust 2021 · 6 days · 31 km away
- 48,071 haChekfa الشقفةAugust 2026 · 20 days · 34 km away
- 3,814 haOum Toub أم الطوبAugust 2026 · 3 days · 39 km away
- 1,877 haOum Toub أم الطوبJuly 2026 · 1 day · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kheneg Mayoum fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 8 July 2017 and 11 July 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 302 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kheneg Mayoum (239 ha, 5.2 %); Ouled Attia (64 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.1 km of Kheneg Mayoum. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 14 · 1021
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.