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Sakaraha fire, October 2017 Sakaraha, Toliary-II

Out · last detection 22 Nov 2017, 10:45 UTC

The fire started on 20 October 2017 in Sakaraha, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,633 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Atsimo-Andrefana since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 3 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
11,633ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
20 Oct 2017 – 22 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
20 Oct
2017
Heat detections
843
in a single hotspot: 72 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Oct22 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2021222325262728303112345678101213141618192122

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
55km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 30 Nov.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,068 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,601 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Sakaraha where it started
    10,850 ha reached on 13 Oct
    1.3 %
  2. Toliary-II
    841 ha reached on 17 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
13 Oct 26.3 °C 42 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Oct 25.5 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
15 Oct 27.8 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Oct 31.6 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Oct 33.1 °C 34 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Oct 27.3 °C 65 % 40 km/h 2.1 mm Low 8
19 Oct 31.3 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Oct 32.7 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Oct 34.6 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 35
22 Oct 35.4 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Oct 34.6 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Oct 33.2 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Oct 32.0 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Oct 32.6 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
27 Oct 32.4 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
28 Oct 26.7 °C 56 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Oct 26.9 °C 45 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Oct 30.3 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Oct 31.9 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Nov 31.8 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Nov 32.2 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Nov 31.6 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
4 Nov 33.0 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43
5 Nov 32.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Nov 31.9 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Nov 29.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Nov 29.1 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Nov 23.7 °C 76 % 43 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 3
10 Nov 27.7 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
11 Nov 29.1 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Nov 28.8 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Nov 30.9 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Nov 31.1 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Nov 31.2 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Nov 34.8 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
17 Nov 31.7 °C 44 % 44 km/h 3.5 mm Moderate 12
18 Nov 29.3 °C 48 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Nov 30.9 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Nov 32.2 °C 43 % 36 km/h 17.1 mm Very low 5
21 Nov 30.9 °C 48 % 27 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 3
22 Nov 29.4 °C 53 % 28 km/h 5.4 mm Very low 2
23 Nov after 29.7 °C 51 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
24 Nov after 31.7 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.8 mm Low 10
25 Nov after 29.6 °C 55 % 33 km/h 20.8 mm Very low 0
26 Nov after 28.9 °C 50 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 4
27 Nov after 27.1 °C 58 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 5
28 Nov after 28.3 °C 50 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
29 Nov after 28.5 °C 55 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
30 Nov after 29.1 °C 59 % 37 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Oct 2017
After · 29 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 · 843Every 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 Sakaraha fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 October 2017 and 22 November 2017: 34 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 11,633 hectares (116.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sakaraha (10,850 ha, 1.3 %); Toliary-II (841 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.