Libya · 5 to 11 August
Libya had its highest fire week for this point in the year since 2012
Two questions, side by side. How bad was this week, measured against every week like it. How bad is the year, measured against every season on record. Different instruments, different units, and one of them is not finished.
This week · 5 to 11 August
1.9×
active-fire detections against the same-week
mean of 717, 2012 to 2025
NASA FIRMS SNPP VIIRS, daily, 375 m
Cleared the anomaly gate for this week. Standardised anomaly z = +2.6
Against the same week, every year
Each year’s detections in the same window of the year, same sensor throughout.
The seven days
7 of 7 days cleared one seventh of a normal week. The peak, 266 on 5 August, is 3 times that line.
This year
No mapped burnt-area series is published for this country, so only the detection instrument appears here. The two are never converted into one another.
What this is
Two measurements of the same fire season at two time scales. The multiple is a rate: how much fire activity satellites detected this week against what this week normally looks like. The hectare figure is a stock: how much land has been mapped as burnt since January. A country can have an unremarkable week and still be having a record year, and the reverse is also true.
What this is not
Not one number at two zoom levels. The two figures come from different instruments with different latencies, and they are not convertible into each other. Not an attribution: fire seasons are driven by heat, drought, wind and land use, and the tag on this page states what is and is not established for this event. Not a forecast of where the season ends.
Baseline
Weekly multiple: same-week mean, 2012 to 2025.Instruments
NASA FIRMS SNPP VIIRSthermal anomaly counts, daily, 375 m
Revision
Detection counts are whole UTC days and are not revised. Published figures are not edited in place.The same week elsewhere
5.3xGeorgiaWell clear of its 2016 record week4.5xSpainWell clear of its 2015 record weeknot ENSO-linked3.9xCubaWell clear of its 2015 record week