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Wangkui County fire, 17 April 2020 Wangkui County

Out · last measured on 18 Apr 2020

The fire started on 17 April 2020 in Wangkui County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,279 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1175th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1765 with a page). Number 220 in China in 2020, of 348.

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
1,279ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
17 Apr 2020 – 18 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
17 Apr
2020
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

20°high
26km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.3 mm on 20 Apr.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 929 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Wangkui County where it started
    1,277 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)
17 Apr 16.6 °C 24 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
18 Apr 19.8 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Apr after 19.1 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Apr after 10.4 °C 70 % 46 km/h 14.3 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Apr 2020
After · 25 Apr 2020

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 Wangkui County fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 April 2020 and 18 April 2020: 2 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 1,279 hectares (12.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Wangkui County (1,277 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 19.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, 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.