Bent Jbail fire, July 2019 Bent Jbail, Marjaayoun, Sour
The fire started on 17 July 2019 in Bent Jbail, Lebanon, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 199 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Nabatîyé since 2016 (of 38 with a page). Number 3 in Lebanon in 2019, of 4.
- Burnt area
- 199ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 17 Jul 2019 – 17 Jul 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 10
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 226MW
- 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 28 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
-
Bent Jbail where it started145 ha reached on 17 Jul0.5 %
-
50 ha reached on 17 Jul0.2 %
-
4 ha0.0 %
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
- Other natural land88 %
- Mixed forest5.0 %
- Coniferous forest4.0 %
- Agricultural areas2.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jul | 37.4 °C | 23 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Jul after | 29.3 °C | 58 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Jul after | 29.3 °C | 55 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Jul after | 29.9 °C | 60 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 21 Jul after | 29.7 °C | 62 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 22 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 53 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 23 Jul after | 32.3 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Jul after | 31.5 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Jul after | 31.3 °C | 56 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 27 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 56 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
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 · 10Every 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 Bent Jbail fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 17 July 2019 and 17 July 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 199 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bent Jbail (145 ha, 0.5 %); Marjaayoun (50 ha, 0.2 %); Sour (4 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Lebanon (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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.