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Mahabo fire, 7 October 2017 Mahabo, Morondava

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2017, 11:29 UTC

The fire started on 7 October 2017 in Mahabo, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,979 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 10 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
4,979ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
7 Oct 2017 – 23 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
7 Oct
2017
Heat detections
400
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

79101112131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
44km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 29 Oct.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,963 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,157 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mahabo where it started
    4,942 ha reached on 30 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Morondava
    47 ha reached on 21 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
7 Oct 33.6 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
8 Oct 32.0 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
9 Oct 33.8 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Oct 34.0 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Oct 35.6 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
12 Oct 34.0 °C 39 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
13 Oct 33.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Oct 34.0 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Oct 34.9 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Oct 36.7 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Oct 36.3 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Oct 35.4 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Oct 36.1 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
20 Oct 38.1 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Oct 38.2 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
22 Oct 38.9 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Oct 36.4 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45
24 Oct after 36.4 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
25 Oct after 35.9 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm High 30
26 Oct after 35.9 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
27 Oct after 35.3 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm High 29
28 Oct after 36.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
29 Oct after 35.2 °C 35 % 27 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Sept 2017
After · 30 Oct 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 · 400Every 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 Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mahabo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2017 and 23 October 2017: 17 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 4,979 hectares (49.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mahabo (4,942 ha, 0.4 %); Morondava (47 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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.