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Morondava fire, 26 October 2017 Morondava

Out · last detection 6 Nov 2017, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 26 October 2017 in Morondava, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,767 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 48th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 28 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
2,767ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
26 Oct 2017 – 5 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Oct
2017
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 250 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Oct5 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031123456

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
45km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 704 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Morondava where it started
    2,773 ha reached on 20 Oct
    0.5 %

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)
26 Oct 34.2 °C 46 % 42 km/h 1.1 mm High 22
27 Oct 34.4 °C 46 % 40 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 20
28 Oct 35.6 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
29 Oct 34.9 °C 40 % 34 km/h 1.2 mm High 22
30 Oct 35.9 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.9 mm High 29
31 Oct 33.3 °C 40 % 35 km/h 3.5 mm Low 11
1 Nov 33.7 °C 35 % 39 km/h 1.0 mm High 24
2 Nov 35.6 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.7 mm High 30
3 Nov 35.3 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Nov 35.8 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Nov 34.2 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
6 Nov after 33.7 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Nov after 34.1 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Nov after 36.1 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Nov after 33.7 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
10 Nov after 34.4 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Nov after 35.5 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Nov after 34.7 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Nov after 34.7 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Nov after 33.6 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
15 Nov after 35.4 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Oct 2017
After · 12 Nov 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 · 196Every 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 Morondava fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 October 2017 and 5 November 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 2,767 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Morondava (2,773 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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.