Skip to content
worldfires
MN · Mongolia · →

Xalx gol fire, 9 April 2023 Xalx gol

Out · last measured on 9 Apr 2023

The fire started on 9 April 2023 in Xalx gol, Mongolia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,070 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 20th largest in Dornod since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 3 in Mongolia in 2023, of 3.

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
2,070ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
9 Apr 2023 – 9 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Apr
2023
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

17°high
38km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Xalx gol where it started
    2,062 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)
9 Apr 16.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Apr after 10.7 °C 16 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Apr after 2.1 °C 15 % 83 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
12 Apr after 9.7 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Apr after 10.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
14 Apr after 9.9 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
15 Apr after 8.6 °C 38 % 19 km/h 0.2 mm Low 9
16 Apr after 12.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
17 Apr after 12.3 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Apr after 15.7 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Apr after 19.4 °C 19 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Apr 2023
After · 16 Apr 2023

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 12 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 131 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak131 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10187 µg/m³
Optical depth1.02
789101112
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 Mongolia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Xalx gol fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 April 2023 and 9 April 2023: 1 day 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 2,070 hectares (20.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Xalx gol (2,062 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 16.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 38 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 Mongolia (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: 105 · 101

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 105 · 101.

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.