Skip to content
worldfires
TD · Chad · →

Lac Iro fire, 25 December 2016 Lac Iro

Out · last detection 2 Jan 2017, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 25 December 2016 in Lac Iro, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,384 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 27th largest in Moyen-Chari since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 38 in Chad in 2016, of 220.

Burnt area
4,384ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
25 Dec 2016 – 2 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
25 Dec
2016
Heat detections
162
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
743MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Dec2 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829303112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
35km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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
    4,406 ha reached on 22 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)
25 Dec 34.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Dec 33.7 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Dec 33.9 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Dec 34.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Dec 34.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Dec 35.7 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec 35.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan 35.0 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan 35.5 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan after 35.7 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Jan after 35.4 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Jan after 35.5 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Jan after 36.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Jan after 37.0 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Jan after 36.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Jan after 34.4 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Jan after 33.9 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Jan after 35.4 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jan after 36.5 °C 10 % 36 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 · 18 Dec 2016
After · 9 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 · 162Every 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 25 December 2016 and 2 January 2017: 9 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 4,384 hectares (43.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lac Iro (4,406 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.