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Taobei District fire, 15 March 2018 Taobei District

Out · last measured on 23 Mar 2018

The fire started on 15 March 2018 in Taobei District, China, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,193 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 622th largest in Jilin Province since 2016 (of 812 with a page). Number 37 in China in 2018, of 54.

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
1,193ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
15 Mar 2018 – 23 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
15 Mar
2018
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

14°high
41km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 30 Mar.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 530 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 502 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Taobei District where it started
    1,189 ha
    0.6 %

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)
15 Mar -0.3 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
16 Mar 4.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
17 Mar 9.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
18 Mar 12.9 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
19 Mar 2.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
20 Mar 5.0 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
21 Mar 10.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
22 Mar 14.4 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
23 Mar 13.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
24 Mar after 18.9 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
25 Mar after 22.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
26 Mar after 25.6 °C 8 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Mar after 24.9 °C 16 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Mar after 14.1 °C 13 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 Mar after 11.1 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Mar after 13.8 °C 8 % 43 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2018
After · 30 Mar 2018

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in China ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Taobei District fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2018 and 23 March 2018: 9 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 1,193 hectares (11.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Taobei District (1,189 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 14.4 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, class Low.
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.