How long did the Baykan fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2016 and 24 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 246 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Baykan (247 ha, 0.5 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 11.3 km of Baykan. 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 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.

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.

TR · Türkiye · 2016-08-21 → 2016-08-24

Baykan fire, August 2016 Baykan

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2016, 09:53 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2016 in Baykan, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 246 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 21th largest in Siirt since 2016 (of 43 with a page). Number 125 in Türkiye in 2016, of 223.

Burnt area: 246ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 21 Aug 2016 – 24 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 21 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 22; in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start: 44; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 181MW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Aug 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

21222324

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

44km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 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

Baykan 26,160 inhabitants · 11.3 km from the town where it started

247 ha reached on 20 Aug

0.5 %

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 woodland81 %
Broadleaved forest13 %
Agricultural areas6.5 %

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)
21 Aug	35.0 °C	14 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Aug	34.2 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
23 Aug	33.8 °C	12 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
24 Aug	33.5 °C	11 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Aug after	33.3 °C	13 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
26 Aug after	32.1 °C	19 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
27 Aug after	34.0 °C	19 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
28 Aug after	33.5 °C	19 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
29 Aug after	33.4 °C	16 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
30 Aug after	34.2 °C	18 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
31 Aug after	33.7 °C	19 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Sept after	31.8 °C	12 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
2 Sept after	30.3 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 46
3 Sept after	29.8 °C	18 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 Aug 2016

After · 31 Aug 2016

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 20 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak33 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM1043 µg/m³

WHO 15

18192021222324252627

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 22Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Türkiye ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Baykan fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2016 and 24 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 246 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Baykan (247 ha, 0.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 11.3 km of Baykan. 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 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
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

OGM · Orman Genel Müdürlüğü ↗
AFAD ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 112.

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.

Where it burned