Linkou County fire, 9 November 2022 Linkou County
The fire started on 9 November 2022 in Linkou County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,571 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 402th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1751 with a page). Number 39 in China in 2022, of 241.
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
- 2,571ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 9 Nov 2022 – 10 Nov 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 9 Nov
- 2022
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.8 mm on 12 Nov.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 301 ha in 2018, 165 ha in 2020, 3 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
Linkou County where it started2,571 ha0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Nov | 12.1 °C | 38 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 10 Nov | 5.7 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 11 Nov after | 7.8 °C | 62 % | 43 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 6 |
| 12 Nov after | 6.6 °C | 89 % | 32 km/h | 17.8 mm | Very low 0 |
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 10 November 2022 the air beside the fire reached 90 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 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)
Other fires nearby
- 1,609 haLinkou County14 April 2024 · 4 days · 3 km away
- 10,864 haLinkou County13 March 2026 · 5 days · 5 km away
- 5,261 haLinkou County12 March 2026 · 6 days · 9 km away
- 1,502 haLinkou County14 April 2024 · 1 day · 9 km away
- 1,839 haLinkou County13 April 2024 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 1,790 haLinkou County11 March 2026 · 7 days · 15 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Linkou County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 November 2022 and 10 November 2022: 2 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 2,571 hectares (25.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Linkou County (2,571 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 12.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 9, 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.