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Lac Iro fire, 13 December 2016 Lac Iro

Out · last detection 27 Dec 2016, 12:23 UTC

The fire started on 13 December 2016 in Lac Iro, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,651 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 16th largest in Moyen-Chari since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 25 in Chad in 2016, of 220.

Burnt area
5,651ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
13 Dec 2016 – 26 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
13 Dec
2016
Heat detections
220
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Dec26 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920212223252627

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
47km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 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
    5,689 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.3 %

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)
13 Dec 35.6 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Dec 35.1 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Dec 33.9 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Dec 34.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Dec 34.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Dec 34.7 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Dec 35.4 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Dec 35.8 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
21 Dec 35.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Dec 36.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Dec 37.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Dec 38.5 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Dec 35.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Dec 34.9 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Dec after 34.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Dec after 35.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Dec after 35.5 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Dec after 36.5 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Dec after 36.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Jan after 35.6 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jan after 36.3 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Jan after 36.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Jan after 35.7 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
5 Jan after 35.9 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Dec 2016
After · 2 Jan 2017

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 · 220Every 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 13 December 2016 and 26 December 2016: 14 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 5,651 hectares (56.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lac Iro (5,689 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.