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Morombe fire, October 2018 Morombe

Out · last detection 7 Nov 2018, 22:35 UTC

The fire started on 23 October 2018 in Morombe, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,904 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 16th largest in Atsimo-Andrefana since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 5 in Madagascar in 2018, of 48.

Burnt area
6,904ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
23 Oct 2018 – 6 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Oct
2018
Heat detections
680
in a single hotspot: 359 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
28.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Nov 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Oct6 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728293031134567

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
54km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 13 Nov.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Morombe where it started
    6,943 ha reached on 17 Oct
    0.9 %

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)
23 Oct 28.5 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Oct 31.2 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Oct 31.9 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Oct 31.9 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Oct 33.0 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Oct 29.3 °C 29 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Oct 29.5 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
30 Oct 30.9 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Oct 30.2 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Nov 31.7 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Nov 31.3 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Nov 31.1 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Nov 31.6 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Nov 31.8 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Nov 31.6 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Nov after 31.9 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Nov after 30.8 °C 38 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Nov after 29.1 °C 33 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Nov after 31.3 °C 40 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Nov after 30.9 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Nov after 34.0 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Nov after 33.1 °C 38 % 37 km/h 1.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Oct 2018
After · 13 Nov 2018

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 · 680Every 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 Morombe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 October 2018 and 6 November 2018: 15 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 6,904 hectares (69.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Morombe (6,943 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.