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Wangkui County fire, 8 April 2024 Wangkui County, Hailun City

Out · last measured on 10 Apr 2024

The fire started on 8 April 2024 in Wangkui County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,960 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 606th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1765 with a page). Number 63 in China in 2024, of 254.

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
1,960ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
8 Apr 2024 – 10 Apr 2024
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
8 Apr
2024
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

15°high
45km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.6 mm on 15 Apr.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 26 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Wangkui County where it started
    1,390 ha
    0.6 %
  2. Hailun City
    571 ha
    0.1 %

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)
8 Apr 2.7 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 Apr 9.5 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
10 Apr 15.3 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
11 Apr after 19.0 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
12 Apr after 20.4 °C 39 % 60 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 12
13 Apr after 23.3 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
14 Apr after 23.3 °C 40 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Apr after 18.5 °C 56 % 45 km/h 8.6 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 2024
After · 17 Apr 2024

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 11 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 96 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak96 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM10167 µg/m³
Optical depth1.29
678910111213
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in China ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Wangkui County fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2024 and 10 April 2024: 3 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 1,960 hectares (19.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Wangkui County (1,390 ha, 0.6 %); Hailun City (571 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 15.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, 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.