Gömeç fire, July 2026 Gömeç, Ayvalık, Burhaniye
The fire started on 29 July 2026 in Gömeç, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,172 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Balıkesir since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 3 in Türkiye in 2026, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 5,172ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 29 Jul 2026 – 29 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 199
- in a single hotspot: 235 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.4GW
- 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 20 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
-
2,464 ha reached on 29 Jul15 %
-
Ayvalık 71,063 inhabitants · 18.2 km from the town2,333 ha reached on 30 Jul7.2 %
-
Burhaniye 60,799 inhabitants · 14.7 km from the town239 ha reached on 30 Jul0.5 %
-
Bergama 105,754 inhabitants · 27.7 km from the town142 ha reached on 30 Jul0.1 %
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 areas35 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland30 %
- Coniferous forest28 %
- Other natural land6.5 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Checked against the press
Checked on 29 September 2026We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Gömeç-Ayvalık-Bergama yangını · Balıkesir Gömeç orman yangını · Kumgedik yangını
- Official area reported: 5,604 ha (the satellite measured 5,172 ha)
Sources
- Balıkesir Valisi İsmail Ustaoğlu ... yanginlarin son durumunu açıkladı — Politikam, 30 July 2026 · official source
- Balıkesir'de 6 Bin 733 Hektar Alan Yandı! — Marmara Bölge Gazetesi, 15 August 2026
- Balıkesir'de Yangınların Bilançosu Netleşti: Toplam 6 Bin 733 Hektar Alan Kül Oldu! — Politikam, 13 August 2026
- Balıkesir'de Tek Yangın Cephesi Kaldı: Gömeç — Haber Yorum, 31 July 2026
Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jul | 30.4 °C | 25 % | 91 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Jul after | 29.4 °C | 27 % | 92 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 31 Jul after | 29.1 °C | 32 % | 105 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 36 % | 85 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 35 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 24 % | 63 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Aug after | 35.0 °C | 27 % | 72 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 30 % | 63 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 37 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 25 % | 76 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 1 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 199Every 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 Gömeç fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2026 and 29 July 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,172 hectares (51.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gömeç (2,464 ha, 15 %); Ayvalık (2,333 ha, 7.2 %); Burhaniye (239 ha, 0.5 %); Bergama (142 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.0 km of Gömeç. 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 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 91 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.