Markam County fire, 2 December 2024 Markam County
The fire started on 2 December 2024 in Markam County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,161 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in Tibet Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 178 in China in 2024, of 254.
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
- 1,161ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 2 Dec 2024 – 7 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 2 Dec
- 2024
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 7 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
-
Markam County where it started1,172 ha0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Dec | 3.1 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 3 Dec | 3.8 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 4 Dec | 3.9 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 5 Dec | 1.1 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 6 Dec | 2.0 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 7 Dec | 3.6 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 8 Dec after | 3.4 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 9 Dec after | 1.6 °C | 20 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 10 Dec after | 1.0 °C | 25 % | 52 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 11 Dec after | 2.9 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 12 Dec after | 4.1 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 13 Dec after | 2.0 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 14 Dec after | 1.1 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 15 Dec after | -0.9 °C | 5 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 16 Dec after | 4.0 °C | 6 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 17 Dec after | 5.4 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
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 2 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 9 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Markam County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 December 2024 and 7 December 2024: 6 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 1,161 hectares (11.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Markam County (1,172 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 3.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very 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.