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Mechroha fire, 20 July 2017 المشروحة · Mechroha, Hammam Beni Salah

Out · last measured on 21 Jul 2017

The fire started on 20 July 2017 in Mechroha, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 127 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Souk Ahras since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 143 in Algeria in 2017, of 173.

We have the Copernicus 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
127ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
20 Jul 2017 – 21 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
20 Jul
2017
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 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

  1. Mechroha المشروحة 21,802 inhabitants · 19.8 km from the town where it started
    93 ha
    0.4 %
  2. Hammam Beni Salah حمام بني صالح 5,235 inhabitants · 5.8 km from the town
    34 ha
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.

What burned

  • Mixed forest72 %
  • Other natural land28 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
20 Jul 36.8 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul 35.5 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Jul after 34.5 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
23 Jul after 37.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
24 Jul after 31.0 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Jul after 29.0 °C 48 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Jul after 28.6 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Jul after 29.6 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Jul after 33.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jul after 37.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jul after 39.5 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul after 41.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2017
After · 28 Jul 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 21 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1064 µg/m³
18192021222324
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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

All fires in Algeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mechroha fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 20 July 2017 and 21 July 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 127 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mechroha (93 ha, 0.4 %); Hammam Beni Salah (34 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.8 km of Hammam Beni Salah. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (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: 14 · 1021

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. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 14 · 1021.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.