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Mitsinjo fire, 5 September 2017 Mitsinjo

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2017, 10:21 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2017 in Mitsinjo, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,009 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 25th largest in Boeny since 2016 (of 41 with a page). Number 24 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
3,009ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
5 Sept 2017 – 15 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
5 Sept
2017
Heat detections
126
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

56789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
48km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Mitsinjo where it started
    3,024 ha reached on 4 Sept
    0.6 %

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)
5 Sept 33.6 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept 32.0 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 31.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept 32.6 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 32.4 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Sept 32.0 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Sept 31.6 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 33.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Sept 33.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Sept 32.1 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Sept 30.9 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept after 31.9 °C 46 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept after 31.8 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Sept after 32.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Sept after 33.8 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Sept after 33.0 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Sept after 32.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Sept after 32.0 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Sept after 30.3 °C 53 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
24 Sept after 31.3 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Sept after 30.7 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Aug 2017
After · 22 Sept 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 · 126Every 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 Mitsinjo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2017 and 15 September 2017: 11 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 3,009 hectares (30.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mitsinjo (3,024 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.