New Barga Left Banner fire, April 2023 China
The fire started on 9 April 2023 in New Barga Left Banner, China, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 40,432 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the largest fire in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 370 with a page). The largest in China in 2023, of 280.
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
- 40,432ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 9 Apr 2023 – 9 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 0
- counties
- Started on
- 9 Apr
- 2023
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,214 ha in 2022.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Apr | 15.1 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 10 Apr after | 8.7 °C | 21 % | 73 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Apr after | -1.0 °C | 20 % | 84 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 12 Apr after | 5.4 °C | 11 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 13 Apr after | 7.3 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Apr after | 10.4 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 15 Apr after | 6.4 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very low 5 |
| 16 Apr after | 9.8 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 17 Apr after | 13.4 °C | 24 % | 56 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 18 Apr after | 8.2 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 19 Apr after | 12.1 °C | 27 % | 68 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 10 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily 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 New Barga Left Banner fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 April 2023 and 9 April 2023: 1 day 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 40,432 hectares (404.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 15.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- 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.