Skip to content
worldfires
MG · Madagascar · →

Toliary-II fire, September 2017 Toliary-II

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2017, 10:45 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2017 in Toliary-II, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,277 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 27th largest in Atsimo-Andrefana since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 20 in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area
3,277ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
11 Sept 2017 – 19 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Sept
2017
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 226 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516171819

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
38km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,675 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,117 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Toliary-II where it started
    3,287 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
11 Sept 31.4 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Sept 34.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept 35.2 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Sept 33.1 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Sept 29.5 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Sept 32.1 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Sept 33.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 32.6 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept 33.8 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept after 33.1 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept after 29.9 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Sept after 32.2 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept after 32.4 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 30.9 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
25 Sept after 32.5 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Sept after 33.1 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 32.9 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.8 mm High 28
28 Sept after 31.8 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept after 30.6 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2017
After · 26 Sept 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 · 115Every 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 Toliary-II fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2017 and 19 September 2017: 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 3,277 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Toliary-II (3,287 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.