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Ghabagheb fire, May 2017 Sa'sa', Ghabagheb, Khan Arnaba

Out · last detection 31 May 2017, 10:41 UTC

The fire started on 31 May 2017 in Ghabagheb, Syria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,511 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

The largest in Syria in 2017, of 7.

Burnt area
2,511ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
31 May 2017 – 31 May 2017
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
31 May
2017
Heat detections
58
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
29MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 May31 May

How it evolved, day by day

31

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
50km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 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. Sa'sa'
    2,036 ha reached on 28 May
    6.2 %
  2. Ghabagheb where it started
    414 ha reached on 26 May
    1.2 %
  3. Khan Arnaba
    66 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

  • Agricultural areas96 %
  • Other natural land3.0 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.9 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
26 May 26.1 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 May 28.1 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 May 27.2 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 May 29.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 May 28.9 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 May 27.3 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Jun after 25.7 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Jun after 27.6 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Jun after 30.3 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Jun after 32.5 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
5 Jun after 31.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Jun after 30.7 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jun after 32.9 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Jun after 35.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Jun after 36.3 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Jun after 31.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Jun after 31.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jun after 32.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Jun after 30.7 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Jun after 29.3 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.6 mm High 36
15 Jun after 30.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Jun after 32.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Jun after 31.5 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 May 2017
After · 7 Jun 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 58Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Syria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ghabagheb fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 31 May 2017 and 31 May 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,511 hectares (25.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sa'sa' (2,036 ha, 6.2 %); Ghabagheb (414 ha, 1.2 %); Khan Arnaba (66 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Syria (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.

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.

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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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.