How long did the Toliary-II fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 October 2017 and 8 November 2017: 30 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 23,015 hectares (230.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Toliary-II (23,092 ha, 2.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

MG · Madagascar · 2017-10-10 → 2017-11-08

Toliary-II fire, 10 October 2017 Toliary-II

Out · last detection 8 Nov 2017, 10:07 UTC

The fire started on 10 October 2017 in Toliary-II, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,015 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in Atsimo-Andrefana since 2016 (of 45 with a page). The largest in Madagascar in 2017, of 57.

Burnt area: 23,015ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 30days; 10 Oct 2017 – 8 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 10 Oct; 2017
Heat detections: 1,787; in a single hotspot: 278 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 27.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Nov 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Oct8 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

101213141516171819202122232425262729303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

54km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 15 Nov.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,441 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,142 ha that had burned before.

9,284 ha Toliary-II fire, October 2016 7,724 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Toliary-II where it started

23,092 ha reached on 5 Oct

2.4 %

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)
5 Oct	32.6 °C	29 %	40 km/h	0.4 mm	High 36
6 Oct	31.5 °C	30 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
7 Oct	32.8 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
8 Oct	32.5 °C	30 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
9 Oct	31.9 °C	34 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
10 Oct	33.1 °C	33 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Oct	32.5 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41
12 Oct	28.7 °C	48 %	44 km/h	0.3 mm	High 31
13 Oct	27.0 °C	38 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
14 Oct	26.1 °C	36 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
15 Oct	29.2 °C	28 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
16 Oct	33.6 °C	18 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
17 Oct	34.3 °C	30 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
18 Oct	28.5 °C	62 %	42 km/h	2.6 mm	Low 8
19 Oct	32.8 °C	34 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Oct	34.7 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
21 Oct	36.8 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 40
22 Oct	37.8 °C	18 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
23 Oct	36.7 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Oct	35.7 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
25 Oct	35.1 °C	31 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
26 Oct	35.5 °C	30 %	34 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 40
27 Oct	34.4 °C	30 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 43
28 Oct	26.8 °C	57 %	53 km/h	0.2 mm	High 31
29 Oct	25.9 °C	48 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
30 Oct	30.7 °C	34 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
31 Oct	32.7 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
1 Nov	32.2 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
2 Nov	33.6 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 39
3 Nov	33.3 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 40
4 Nov	33.6 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
5 Nov	32.9 °C	23 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
6 Nov	33.8 °C	22 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
7 Nov	31.8 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
8 Nov	31.0 °C	30 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
9 Nov after	24.5 °C	76 %	45 km/h	5.1 mm	Very low 2
10 Nov after	29.5 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
11 Nov after	30.0 °C	35 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Nov after	30.1 °C	35 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Nov after	32.0 °C	27 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Nov after	33.0 °C	29 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
15 Nov after	32.0 °C	40 %	39 km/h	2.2 mm	Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 3 Oct 2017

After · 15 Nov 2017

Before After

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 · 1,787Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Toliary-II fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 October 2017 and 8 November 2017: 30 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 23,015 hectares (230.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Toliary-II (23,092 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned