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Ilam fire, 16 July 2019 Ilam

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2019, 22:38 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2019 in Ilam, Iran, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,677 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Ilam since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 7 in Iran in 2019, of 34.

Burnt area
2,677ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
16 Jul 2019 – 20 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
16 Jul
2019
Heat detections
112
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
68
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul20 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
59km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19 ha in 2016, 12 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 29 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ilam where it started
    2,689 ha
    1.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

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)
16 Jul 32.3 °C 12 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
17 Jul 31.4 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Jul 33.8 °C 11 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
19 Jul 33.6 °C 12 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
20 Jul 35.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Jul after 36.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Jul after 36.1 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Jul after 34.1 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
24 Jul after 36.1 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Jul after 34.9 °C 9 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
26 Jul after 34.2 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 Jul after 33.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Jul after 32.5 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Jul after 33.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Jul after 34.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2019
After · 27 Jul 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 · 0Every 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 Iran ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ilam fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 July 2019 and 20 July 2019: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,677 hectares (26.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ilam (2,689 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Iran (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: 125

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. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 125.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 from each country’s official figure.