الكريب fire, July 2023 الكريب, تيبار
The fire started on 25 July 2023 in الكريب, Tunisia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,336 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Siliana since 2016 (of 10 with a page). The largest in Tunisia in 2023, of 10.
- Burnt area
- 1,336ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 25 Jul 2023 – 26 Jul 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- delegations
- Started on
- 25 Jul
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 39
- in a single hotspot: 259 MW
- Danger at start
- 72
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 15 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
-
الكريب where it started1,331 ha reached on 25 Jul3.1 %
-
9 ha0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.
What burned
- Other natural land47 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland17 %
- Coniferous forest15 %
- Agricultural areas14 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub3.0 %
- Mixed forest2.8 %
- Broadleaved forest0.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jul | 37.6 °C | 12 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 26 Jul | 29.5 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Jul after | 32.7 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Jul after | 36.7 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Jul after | 37.3 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Jul after | 34.1 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Aug after | 37.0 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 49 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 49 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
Before and after, from space
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 25 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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)
Detections table · 39Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the الكريب fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2023 and 26 July 2023: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,336 hectares (13.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: الكريب (1,331 ha, 3.1 %); تيبار (9 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Tunisia (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: 198
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
Where this data comes from
The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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 (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 slightly from each country’s official figure.