Skip to content
worldfires
SY · Syria · →

Hamra fire, May 2019 Hamra, Suran, Tamanaah

Out · last detection 29 May 2019, 09:52 UTC

The fire started on 22 May 2019 in Hamra, Syria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 7,567 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Hama since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 4 in Syria in 2019, of 163.

Burnt area
7,567ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
8days
22 May 2019 – 29 May 2019
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
22 May
2019
Heat detections
66
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
72
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
801MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 May29 May

How it evolved, day by day

2224252729

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
63km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 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. Hamra where it started
    5,217 ha reached on 22 May
    5.8 %
  2. Suran
    1,333 ha reached on 24 May
    2.8 %
  3. Tamanaah
    667 ha reached on 27 May
    1.8 %
  4. As-Salamiyeh
    365 ha
    0.4 %

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 areas97 %
  • Other natural land1.5 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.4 %

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)
22 May 36.4 °C 10 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
23 May 40.5 °C 3 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
24 May 41.1 °C 7 % 63 km/h 0.1 mm Very extreme 91
25 May 32.2 °C 14 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
26 May 32.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 May 35.3 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 May 38.5 °C 5 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 May 40.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
30 May after 41.7 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
31 May after 40.4 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
1 Jun after 40.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
2 Jun after 38.3 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
3 Jun after 37.6 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
4 Jun after 36.9 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
5 Jun after 37.3 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Jun after 35.0 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Jun after 36.8 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Jun after 37.1 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 May 2019
After · 5 Jun 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.

Detections table · 66Every 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 Hamra fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 22 May 2019 and 29 May 2019: 8 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 7,567 hectares (75.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Hamra (5,217 ha, 5.8 %); Suran (1,333 ha, 2.8 %); Tamanaah (667 ha, 1.8 %); As-Salamiyeh (365 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 91, class Very extreme.
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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.