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CN · China · –

Yongsheng County fire, 5 February 2017 永胜县 · Yongsheng County

Out · last measured on 6 Feb 2017

The fire started on 5 February 2017 in Yongsheng County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,026 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 187th largest in Yunnan Province since 2016 (of 196 with a page). Number 230 in China in 2017, of 243.

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
1,026ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
5 Feb 2017 – 6 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
5 Feb
2017
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

24°high
53km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.6% of the area of London (10 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Yongsheng County 永胜县 where it started
    1,030 ha
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Very dry air: 14 % of the area in China

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
5 Feb 22.7 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Feb 24.5 °C 9 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Feb after 18.6 °C 16 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Feb after 17.5 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Feb after 18.0 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Feb after 18.2 °C 21 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Feb after 16.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Feb after 19.6 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Feb after 19.1 °C 18 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Feb after 17.5 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Feb after 17.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Feb after 20.4 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 22.2, a minimum humidity of 12% and 31 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 22.2
Minimum humidity 12 %
Days without rain 31
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Huili County fire, February 2023
1,098 ha 2 days FWI 23.6 Min. humidity 9 % 114 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
1,103 ha
median area
95 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 7 of 19 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,026 ha against a median of 1,103 ha) and lasted 2 days, against 4 days.

In 12 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
53km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 6 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 7 of 19, with a median of 5.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jan 2017
After · 13 Feb 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in China

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Yongsheng County fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 February 2017 and 6 February 2017: 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 1,026 hectares (10.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yongsheng County (1,030 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 1,103 ha; 95 % went past 1,000 ha. In 12 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.0 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.