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Baneh fire, 2 August 2020 Iran

Out · last measured on 6 Aug 2020

The fire started on 2 August 2020 in Baneh, Iran, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,824 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in Kurdistan since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 9 in Iran in 2020, of 49.

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.

Burnt area
2,824ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
2 Aug 2020 – 6 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
0
counties
Started on
2 Aug
2020
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
53km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 359 ha in 2016, 145 ha in 2017.

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)
2 Aug 35.7 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Aug 36.4 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Aug 37.3 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Aug 33.4 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Aug 34.3 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Aug after 35.1 °C 16 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Aug after 35.4 °C 18 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Aug after 36.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Aug after 37.0 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Aug after 35.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Aug after 36.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Aug after 36.6 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Aug after 37.1 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Aug after 35.6 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug after 35.1 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jul 2020
After · 13 Aug 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Iran ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Baneh fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 August 2020 and 6 August 2020: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,824 hectares (28.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Iran (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: 125

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 125.

Where this data comes from

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 (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 from each country’s official figure.