Skip to content
worldfires
en
IQ · Iraq · –

Koysinjaq fire, September 2016 Koysinjaq, Shaqlawa

Out · last measured on 11 Sept 2016

The fire started on 9 September 2016 in Koysinjaq, Iraq, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,174 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Erbil since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 19 in Iraq in 2016, of 26.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Aqra · 2025Aqra · 2018Shaqlawa · 2016

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,174ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
9 Sept 2016 – 11 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Sept
2016
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

35°high
31km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.7% of the area of London (12 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Koysinjaq where it started
    877 ha
    0.4 %
  2. Shaqlawa
    301 ha
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area0.65 ha
Residents≈ 80

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.65 hectares of built-up land and about 80 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 27 % of the area in Iraq

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
9 Sept 33.5 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept 34.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 34.6 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept after 34.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept after 34.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept after 32.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Sept after 30.5 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Sept after 33.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept after 29.0 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 29.5 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Sept after 29.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept after 30.5 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept after 30.5 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 50

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 43.0, a minimum humidity of 15% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 43.0
Minimum humidity 15 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Aqra fire, September 2025
1,004 ha 8 days FWI 43.7 Min. humidity 14 % 98 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

6 days
median duration
1,357 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 2 of 17 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,174 ha against a median of 1,357 ha) and lasted 3 days, against 6 days.

In 15 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
31km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 11 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 2 of 17, with a median of 1.5 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2016
After · 18 Sept 2016

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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Iraq

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Koysinjaq fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2016 and 11 September 2016: 3 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 1,174 hectares (11.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Koysinjaq (877 ha, 0.4 %); Shaqlawa (301 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Iraq (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 17. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 1,357 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 15 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.

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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (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 from each country’s official figure.