The fire started on 27 August 2021 in Al-Kahla, Iraq, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,798 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 7th largest in Maysan since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 3 in Iraq in 2021, of 22.
Union of 2 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
27 Aug 2021 to 17 Sept 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
High of 50.1 °C and minimum humidity of 6% on 27 August 2021; gusts of 56 km/h on 5 September 2021.
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-08-27 | 0 | 0 | 50.1 | 32.8 | 6 | 28.5 | 45.7 | 0 | 93.7 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-28 | 0 | 0 | 49.5 | 29.6 | 6 | 22.3 | 38.9 | 0 | 82.4 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-29 | 0 | 0 | 48.1 | 28.8 | 12 | 16.1 | 33.5 | 0 | 71.1 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-30 | 0 | 0 | 47.3 | 33 | 16 | 13.1 | 30.6 | 0 | 62.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-31 | 0 | 0 | 47.8 | 32 | 13 | 11.4 | 23 | 0 | 60.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-01 | 0 | 0 | 47.3 | 30.3 | 14 | 13.7 | 28.8 | 0 | 63.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-02 | 0 | 0 | 45.7 | 28.6 | 19 | 18.4 | 36 | 0 | 65.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-03 | 0 | 0 | 46.3 | 30.1 | 17 | 14.3 | 28.8 | 0 | 59.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-04 | 0 | 0 | 47.1 | 30.3 | 7 | 29 | 50.8 | 0 | 89.8 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-05 | 0 | 0 | 46.2 | 28.8 | 5 | 33.1 | 56.5 | 0 | 99.9 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-06 | 0 | 0 | 47.2 | 26.2 | 6 | 27.7 | 50.8 | 0 | 89.4 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-07 | 0 | 0 | 48.8 | 29.9 | 5 | 30.1 | 52.9 | 0 | 96.6 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-08 | 0 | 0 | 46.2 | 31.1 | 8 | 32.2 | 53.6 | 0 | 101.4 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-09 | 0 | 0 | 43.9 | 28.7 | 12 | 26.3 | 46.1 | 0 | 84.2 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-10 | 0 | 0 | 44.8 | 27.1 | 9 | 18.5 | 30.2 | 0 | 71.3 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-11 | 0 | 0 | 44.3 | 27.2 | 9 | 19 | 34.9 | 0 | 72.4 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-12 | 0 | 0 | 42.5 | 25.5 | 12 | 19.1 | 33.1 | 0 | 70.5 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-13 | 0 | 0 | 42.8 | 25 | 10 | 20.6 | 34.9 | 0 | 73.2 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-14 | 0 | 0 | 43.6 | 24.8 | 9 | 17.4 | 30.2 | 0 | 68.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-15 | 0 | 0 | 43.5 | 25.5 | 9 | 17 | 29.2 | 0 | 68.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-16 | 0 | 0 | 43.7 | 25.3 | 9 | 20.9 | 36.4 | 0 | 74.6 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-17 | 0 | 0 | 43.9 | 23.4 | 8 | 20.7 | 36.7 | 0 | 74.5 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-09-18 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 27.3 | 10 | 19.6 | 36.4 | 0 | 73.1 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-19 | 0 | 0 | 42.8 | 28.1 | 11 | 29.8 | 49.3 | 0 | 90.3 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-20 | 0 | 0 | 41.8 | 22.7 | 9 | 19.9 | 36 | 0 | 73.2 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-21 | 0 | 0 | 42.7 | 24.9 | 10 | 18 | 32 | 0 | 70.5 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 41.4 | 24.9 | 11 | 23.5 | 41.8 | 0 | 77.6 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 42.2 | 21 | 8 | 15.9 | 29.5 | 0 | 66 | extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 43.4 | 23.4 | 11 | 18.5 | 29.2 | 0 | 70.1 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-25 | 0 | 0 | 40.3 | 26.5 | 12 | 27.4 | 47.9 | 0 | 82.1 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-26 | 0 | 0 | 38.8 | 24.3 | 13 | 27.8 | 49 | 0 | 79.9 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2021-09-27 | 0 | 0 | 39.7 | 21.3 | 10 | 18.3 | 31.7 | 0 | 65.1 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
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.
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 268 ha in 2016, 9 ha in 2017, 1,591 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,215 ha that had burned before.
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
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.
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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
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: 69 % of the area in Iraq 60 days without rain: 27 % of the area in Iraq
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 50.1 °C | 6 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 94 |
| 28 Aug | 49.5 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 29 Aug | 48.1 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 30 Aug | 47.3 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 31 Aug | 47.8 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 1 Sept | 47.3 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 2 Sept | 45.7 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 3 Sept | 46.3 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 4 Sept | 47.1 °C | 7 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 90 |
| 5 Sept | 46.2 °C | 5 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 100 |
| 6 Sept | 47.2 °C | 6 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 89 |
| 7 Sept | 48.8 °C | 5 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 97 |
| 8 Sept | 46.2 °C | 8 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 101 |
| 9 Sept | 43.9 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 84 |
| 10 Sept | 44.8 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 11 Sept | 44.3 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 12 Sept | 42.5 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 13 Sept | 42.8 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 14 Sept | 43.6 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 15 Sept | 43.5 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 16 Sept | 43.7 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 17 Sept | 43.9 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 18 Sept after | 45.0 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 19 Sept after | 42.8 °C | 11 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 90 |
| 20 Sept after | 41.8 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 21 Sept after | 42.7 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 22 Sept after | 41.4 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 23 Sept after | 42.2 °C | 8 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 24 Sept after | 43.4 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 25 Sept after | 40.3 °C | 12 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 26 Sept after | 38.8 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 27 Sept after | 39.7 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
It started with an FWI of 93.7, a minimum humidity of 6% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 12.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 12. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
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
It was considered over on 17 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
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.