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As-Saan fire, 15 May 2019 As-Saan, Khanaser

Out · last detection 16 May 2019, 22:57 UTC

The fire started on 15 May 2019 in As-Saan, Syria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 23,331 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Hama since 2016 (of 37 with a page). The largest in Syria in 2019, of 163.

Burnt area
23,331ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
8days
15 May 2019 – 22 May 2019
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
15 May
2019
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
765MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 May22 May

How it evolved, day by day

1516

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high
58km/h · peak gust
2%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 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

  1. As-Saan where it started
    20,795 ha reached on 15 May
    11 %
  2. Khanaser
    2,595 ha
    1.6 %

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 areas96 %
  • Other natural land3.8 %

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)
15 May 38.2 °C 5 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 May 40.1 °C 6 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
17 May 38.2 °C 2 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
18 May 31.0 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
19 May 30.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 May 33.8 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
21 May 36.4 °C 8 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
22 May 36.4 °C 10 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 87
23 May after 39.8 °C 3 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
24 May after 41.2 °C 4 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 101
25 May after 33.9 °C 11 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
26 May after 33.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
27 May after 34.9 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 May after 37.4 °C 5 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 May after 39.3 °C 5 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
30 May after 41.6 °C 3 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
31 May after 40.5 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 92
1 Jun after 39.7 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 8 May 2019
After · 29 May 2019

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 · 84Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Syria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the As-Saan fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 May 2019 and 22 May 2019: 8 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 23,331 hectares (233.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: As-Saan (20,795 ha, 11 %); Khanaser (2,595 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 87, 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.

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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.