Burned area
satellite only3,022ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 18 Mar 2023 – 22 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CN · China · –
Qiubei County fire, March 2023 丘北县 · Qiubei County
Out · last measured on 22 Mar 2023
The fire started on 18 March 2023 in Qiubei County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,022 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 19th largest in Yunnan Province since 2016 (of 196 with a page). Number 26 in China in 2023, of 241.
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Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only5days
18 Mar 2023 to 22 Mar 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Mar 2023 – 22 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only18 Mar 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Danger at the start
model28.5FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 5.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 18 Mar 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model29.7°C · 23% RH
High of 29.7 °C and minimum humidity of 23% on 20 March 2023; gusts of 84 km/h on 20 March 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 18 Mar 2023 – 22 Mar 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 1,500people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.7 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,022 ha
- Dates
- 18 Mar 2023 – 22 Mar 2023
- Name
- Qiubei County
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/qiubei-county-2023-03?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire qiubei-county-2023-03.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-03-18 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 13.8 | 23 | 23.2 | 64.1 | 0.2 | 28.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-19 | 0 | 0 | 29.6 | 14.6 | 24 | 25.5 | 71.3 | 0.6 | 29.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-20 | 0 | 0 | 29.7 | 19.1 | 23 | 32.4 | 83.9 | 0 | 36.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-21 | 0 | 0 | 28.3 | 19.6 | 21 | 31.9 | 81.7 | 0 | 37.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-22 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 19.7 | 21 | 27.3 | 73.1 | 0.3 | 34.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-23 | 0 | 0 | 29.4 | 18.7 | 22 | 26.5 | 70.6 | 0.1 | 35 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-24 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 15.7 | 12 | 21.2 | 60.5 | 0.1 | 37.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-25 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 | 14.3 | 17 | 19.8 | 51.5 | 1.4 | 27.3 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
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
- 3,022ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 18 Mar 2023 – 22 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 18 Mar
- 2023
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
30°high
84km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 25 Mar.
This area had burned before
41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,045 ha in 2019, 179 ha in 2021.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Beijing (Dongcheng and Xicheng) boundary: geoBoundaries · Lee Beryman, OpenStreetMap · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
3,041 ha0.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area1.7 ha
Residents≈ 1,500
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.7 hectares of built-up land and about 1,500 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Strong wind: 24 % of the area in China
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Mar | 28.9 °C | 23 % | 64 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Mar | 29.6 °C | 24 % | 71 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Mar | 29.7 °C | 23 % | 84 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Mar | 28.3 °C | 21 % | 82 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 22 Mar | 29.0 °C | 21 % | 73 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Mar after | 29.4 °C | 22 % | 71 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Mar after | 30.3 °C | 12 % | 60 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Mar after | 30.2 °C | 17 % | 52 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 27 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.5, a minimum humidity of 23% and 5 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.
FWI at the start
28.5
Minimum humidity
23 %
Days without rain
5
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Qiubei County fire, March 2023
3,022 ha
5 days
FWI 28.5
Min. humidity 23 %
Yanshan County fire, April 2023
1,559 ha
3 days
FWI 25.0
Min. humidity 23 %
89 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 7 Apr.
Qiubei County fire, February 2023
1,081 ha
4 days
FWI 26.4
Min. humidity 20 %
51 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 21 Feb.
Muong Te fire, April 2023
1,575 ha
5 days
FWI 24.9
Min. humidity 23 %
236 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 26 Apr.
Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County fire, February 2023
1,475 ha
2 days
FWI 25.8
Min. humidity 22 %
232 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 16 Feb.
Qiubei County fire, February 2023
1,853 ha
4 days
FWI 26.2
Min. humidity 18 %
45 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 21 Feb.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 1,475 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 21 of 23 had it)
It was 2.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 5 days, against 3 days.
Only 2 of its 23 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 2 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
1.4 mmfirst rain
25 Mar3 days after it ended
84km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 22 Mar, and on 25 Mar 1.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 21 of 23, with a median of 2.8 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 11 Mar 2023
After · 29 Mar 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 16 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak38 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1055 µg/m³
Optical depth0.76
WHO 15
16 Mar18 Mar20 Mar22 Mar24 Mar
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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Qiubei County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2023 and 22 March 2023: 5 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 3,022 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Qiubei County (3,041 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 84 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
- 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 1,475 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 2 of its 23 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 2 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.