Linkou County fire, March 2019 林口县 · Linkou County
The fire started on 19 March 2019 in Linkou County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,847 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 659th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1765 with a page). Number 43 in China in 2019, of 212.
We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 1,847ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 19 Mar 2019 – 19 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2019
- Danger at start
- 10
- Low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 20 Mar.
This area had burned before
24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 310 ha in 2016, 230 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 436 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
1,863 ha0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Mar | 15.2 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 20 Mar after | 10.8 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 2 |
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.
Other fires nearby
- 52,010 haLinkou County 林口县13 March 2026 · 21 days · 16 km away
- 5,310 haBoli County 勃利县30 March 2023 · 4 days · 34 km away
- 13,911 haBoli County 勃利县22 October 2017 · 11 days · 35 km away
- 4,693 haYilan County 依兰县19 November 2025 · 5 days · 36 km away
- 6,340 haYilan County 依兰县19 April 2021 · 4 days · 39 km away
- 5,473 haYilan County 依兰县28 October 2017 · 7 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Linkou County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2019 and 19 March 2019: 1 day 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 1,847 hectares (18.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Linkou County (1,863 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 15.2 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of China (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: 119
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 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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.