Artuklu fire, June 2020 Ömerli, Artuklu
The fire started on 14 June 2020 in Artuklu, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,510 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Mardin since 2016 (of 131 with a page). Number 4 in Türkiye in 2020, of 212.
The power measured by the satellite is low (2.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,510ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 14 Jun 2020 – 15 Jun 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Jun
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 11
- in a single hotspot: 3 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 9MW
- 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 21 Jun.
This area had burned before
24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 608 ha in 2017, 1 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
Ömerli 14,233 inhabitants · 7.2 km from the town2,202 ha reached on 14 Jun4.8 %
-
310 ha reached on 13 Jun0.4 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland76 %
- Agricultural areas18 %
- Other natural land5.1 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jun | 26.0 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Jun | 30.9 °C | 13 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 15 Jun | 30.5 °C | 20 % | 54 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Jun after | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Jun after | 34.3 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Jun after | 33.2 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Jun after | 27.2 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Jun after | 26.7 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Jun after | 27.4 °C | 33 % | 46 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 28 |
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 17 June 2020 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 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 · 11Every 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 Artuklu fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 14 June 2020 and 15 June 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,510 hectares (25.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ömerli (2,202 ha, 4.8 %); Artuklu (310 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.2 km of Ömerli. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Türkiye (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: 112
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.