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Taobei District fire, 10 March 2016 Zhenlai County, Taobei District

Out · last detection 20 Mar 2016, 03:54 UTC

The fire started on 10 March 2016 in Taobei District, China, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,511 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 435th largest in Jilin Province since 2016 (of 812 with a page). Number 70 in China in 2016, of 180.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,511ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
10 Mar 2016 – 20 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
10 Mar
2016
Heat detections
54
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
240MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Mar20 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

10121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

17°high
65km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Zhenlai County
    772 ha
    0.1 %
  2. Taobei District where it started
    735 ha
    0.4 %

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)
10 Mar -1.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
11 Mar 0.4 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
12 Mar 7.5 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
13 Mar 2.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
14 Mar 8.5 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
15 Mar 14.9 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
16 Mar 16.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
17 Mar 16.9 °C 17 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
18 Mar 7.2 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
19 Mar 8.9 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
20 Mar 13.6 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
21 Mar after 9.7 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
22 Mar after 6.5 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
23 Mar after 7.1 °C 20 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
24 Mar after 7.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
25 Mar after 14.5 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
26 Mar after 15.5 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
27 Mar after 13.6 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
28 Mar after 16.4 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Mar after 10.6 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Mar after 11.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Mar 2016
After · 27 Mar 2016

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 · 54Every 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 China ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Taobei District fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 March 2016 and 20 March 2016: 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 1,511 hectares (15.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zhenlai County (772 ha, 0.1 %); Taobei District (735 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 16.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 119.

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.