Çukurca fire, 21 July 2019 Yüksekova, Çukurca
The fire started on 21 July 2019 in Çukurca, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 434 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 17th largest in Hakkâri since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 23 in Türkiye in 2019, of 138.
- Burnt area
- 434ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 21 Jul 2019 – 24 Jul 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 21 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 22
- in a single hotspot: 93 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 440MW
- 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 40 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
-
Yüksekova 119,760 inhabitants · 48.9 km from the town221 ha reached on 23 Jul0.1 %
-
214 ha reached on 21 Jul0.2 %
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
- Broadleaved forest71 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland24 %
- Agricultural areas4.4 %
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 Jul | 35.8 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jul | 36.0 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Jul | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jul | 32.4 °C | 18 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Jul after | 32.0 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Jul after | 32.0 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jul after | 32.5 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Jul after | 33.4 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Jul after | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Aug after | 33.4 °C | 17 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
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 22 July 2019 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 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 · 22Every 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 Çukurca fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 21 July 2019 and 24 July 2019: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 434 hectares (4.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yüksekova (221 ha, 0.1 %); Çukurca (214 ha, 0.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 26.1 km of Çukurca. 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 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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
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 (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.