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Midyat fire, May 2016 Midyat, İdil

Out · last measured on 7 May 2016

The fire started on 6 May 2016 in Midyat, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 171 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 111th largest in Mardin since 2016 (of 131 with a page). Number 170 in Türkiye in 2016, of 223.

We have the Copernicus 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
171ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
6 May 2016 – 7 May 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 May
2016
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

23°high
64km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 17 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Midyat 118,625 inhabitants · 23.0 km from the town where it started
    129 ha
    0.1 %
  2. İdil 76,523 inhabitants · 31.9 km from the town
    42 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Broadleaved forest52 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland43 %
  • Other natural land5.8 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

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)
6 May 23.4 °C 17 % 64 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 15
7 May 18.3 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
8 May after 22.8 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 May after 24.3 °C 21 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
10 May after 24.8 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 May after 26.3 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
12 May after 25.5 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 May after 26.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 May after 28.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 May after 30.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 May after 29.0 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 May after 27.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 2.8 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Apr 2016
After · 14 May 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 4 May 2016 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1048 µg/m³
45678910
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Türkiye ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Midyat fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 6 May 2016 and 7 May 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 171 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Midyat (129 ha, 0.1 %); İdil (42 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 23.0 km of Midyat. 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 23.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
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
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 112.

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.