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Cizre fire, 3 July 2018 Cizre, Silopi

Out · last measured on 3 Jul 2018

The fire started on 3 July 2018 in Cizre, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 364 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 61th largest in Şırnak since 2016 (of 192 with a page). Number 23 in Türkiye in 2018, of 104.

We have the Copernicus 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
364ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
3 Jul 2018 – 3 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Jul
2018
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

45°high
29km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 363 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Cizre 143,124 inhabitants · 14.0 km from the town where it started
    204 ha
    0.5 %
  2. Silopi 134,754 inhabitants · 15.5 km from the town
    161 ha
    0.2 %

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 land98 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.9 %

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)
3 Jul 44.8 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Jul after 44.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Jul after 42.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Jul after 39.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Jul after 39.6 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jul after 39.7 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Jul after 40.8 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Jul after 43.0 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jul after 42.8 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jul after 43.0 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Jul after 41.7 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jun 2018
After · 10 Jul 2018

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 Türkiye ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cizre fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 3 July 2018 and 3 July 2018: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 364 hectares (3.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cizre (204 ha, 0.5 %); Silopi (161 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 14.0 km of Cizre. 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 44.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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

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 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.