Çukurca fire, September 2026 Çukurca
The fire started on 24 September 2026 in Çukurca, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 151 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 72th largest in Hakkâri since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 77 in Türkiye in 2026, of 109.
The power measured by the satellite is low (13.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 151ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 24 Sept 2026 – 26 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 14 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 10MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 80 ha in 2016, 4 ha in 2018, 38 ha in 2019, 64 ha in 2020, 141 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 144 ha that had burned before.
- 141 ha Çukurca fire, August 2021 552 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 80 ha Çukurca fire, August 2016 860 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 64 ha Çukurca fire, August 2020 134 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 38 ha Çukurca fire, August 2019 111 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
151 ha reached on 24 Sept0.2 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland82 %
- Other natural land18 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Sept | 30.0 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Sept | 30.9 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Sept | 31.0 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
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 23 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.4 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 · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,500 haAl-Amadiya1 August 2019 · 5 days · 16 km away
- 1,725 haAl-AmadiyaSeptember 2020 · 5 days · 18 km away
- 1,623 haAl-AmadiyaSeptember 2017 · 4 days · 19 km away
- 1,473 haAl-AmadiyaJuly 2019 · 4 days · 24 km away
- 1,426 haAl-Amadiya12 August 2016 · 5 days · 26 km away
- 1,470 haAl-ZibarSeptember 2021 · 6 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Çukurca fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 September 2026 to 26 September 2026 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 September 2026 to 24 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 151 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Çukurca (151 ha, 0.2 %).
- Is the Çukurca fire still active?
- No fire detections since 26 Sept 2026, 10:30 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 19.9 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 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 September 2026 to 24 September 2026. 5 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.