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Lac Iro fire, 8 December 2016 Lac Iro

Out · last detection 12 Dec 2016, 12:04 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2016 in Lac Iro, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,712 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 44th largest in Moyen-Chari since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 55 in Chad in 2016, of 220.

Burnt area
3,712ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
8 Dec 2016 – 11 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
8 Dec
2016
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec11 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

89101112

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 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

  1. Lac Iro where it started
    3,731 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

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 Dec 37.9 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Dec 36.8 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Dec 35.9 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Dec 35.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Dec after 36.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Dec after 36.8 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Dec after 36.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Dec after 34.9 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Dec after 35.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Dec after 36.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Dec after 35.4 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Dec after 35.8 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Dec after 35.6 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
21 Dec after 36.2 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 1 Dec 2016
After · 18 Dec 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 96Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Chad ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lac Iro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 December 2016 and 11 December 2016: 4 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,712 hectares (37.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lac Iro (3,731 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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.

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.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.