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Cizre fire, November 2019 Cizre

Out · last measured on 15 Nov 2019

The fire started on 15 November 2019 in Cizre, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 205 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 115th largest in Şırnak since 2016 (of 192 with a page). Number 69 in Türkiye in 2019, of 138.

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
205ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
15 Nov 2019 – 15 Nov 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Nov
2019
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

24°high
16km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 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

  1. Cizre 143,124 inhabitants · 7.8 km from the town where it started
    206 ha
    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

  • Agricultural areas57 %
  • Other natural land43 %

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)
15 Nov 23.6 °C 26 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 Nov after 21.2 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Nov after 17.7 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Nov after 18.4 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
19 Nov after 17.0 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Nov after 19.6 °C 18 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Nov after 18.2 °C 18 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
22 Nov after 17.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Nov after 18.3 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Nov after 18.0 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Nov after 18.2 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Nov 2019
After · 22 Nov 2019

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 16 November 2019 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1063 µg/m³
131415161718
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Türkiye ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cizre fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 November 2019 and 15 November 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 205 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cizre (206 ha, 0.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.8 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 23.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 16 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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.