Ar-Raqqa fire, June 2019 Ar-Raqqa, Jurneyyeh
The fire started on 12 June 2019 in Ar-Raqqa, Syria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 594 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Ar-Raqqa since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 54 in Syria in 2019, of 163.
- Burnt area
- 594ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 12 Jun 2019 – 12 Jun 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 12 Jun
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 26
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 72
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 353MW
- 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 39 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
-
Ar-Raqqa where it started419 ha reached on 12 Jun0.1 %
-
176 ha reached on 12 Jun0.1 %
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
- Agricultural areas100 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Jun | 36.2 °C | 18 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 13 Jun after | 35.2 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 14 Jun after | 34.3 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 15 Jun after | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Jun after | 38.8 °C | 17 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 17 Jun after | 35.6 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 18 Jun after | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 19 Jun after | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 49 km/h | 0.7 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Jun after | 33.7 °C | 32 % | 52 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 21 Jun after | 36.1 °C | 27 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Jun after | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
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.
Detections table · 26Every 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 Ar-Raqqa fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 12 June 2019 and 12 June 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 594 hectares (5.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ar-Raqqa (419 ha, 0.1 %); Jurneyyeh (176 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 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 Syria (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.
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 ADM3 (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 slightly from each country’s official figure.