Bitlis merkez fire, September 2018 Bitlis · Bitlis merkez
The fire started on 24 September 2018 in Bitlis merkez, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 353 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Bitlis since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 25 in Türkiye in 2018, of 104.
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- Burnt area
- 353ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 24 Sept 2018 – 28 Sept 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Sept
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 46
- in a single hotspot: 111 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 81MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 2 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
-
353 ha reached on 24 Sept0.3 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Broadleaved forest75 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland25 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Sept | 27.0 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Sept | 27.2 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Sept | 27.1 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Sept | 27.3 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Sept after | 25.6 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Oct after | 25.3 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 Oct after | 24.7 °C | 27 % | 48 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Oct after | 24.1 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Oct after | 23.7 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Oct after | 23.8 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Oct after | 23.1 °C | 25 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 7 Oct after | 23.2 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
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 26 September 2018 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 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 · 46Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 392 haBitlis merkez Bitlis8 August 2020 · 6 days · 5 km away
- 518 haBitlis merkez Bitlis30 August 2021 · 3 days · 12 km away
- 1,003 haBitlis merkez Bitlis29 August 2020 · 4 days · 18 km away
- 425 haBitlis merkez BitlisJune 2021 · 3 days · 19 km away
- 388 haBitlis merkez BitlisSeptember 2020 · 11 days · 24 km away
- 418 haMutkiSeptember 2018 · 5 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bitlis merkez fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 September 2018 to 28 September 2018 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 September 2018 to 27 September 2018.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 353 hectares (3.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bitlis merkez (353 ha, 0.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Bitlis merkez and came within 11.4 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 September 2018 to 27 September 2018. 46 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.