How long did the Midyat fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2016 and 25 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,275 hectares (12.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gercüş (1,235 ha, 1.3 %); Midyat (40 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.6 km of Gercüş. 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 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.

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.

TR · Türkiye · 2016-07-25 → 2016-07-25

Midyat fire, 25 July 2016 Gercüş, Midyat

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2016, 23:16 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2016 in Midyat, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,275 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Mardin since 2016 (of 131 with a page). Number 15 in Türkiye in 2016, of 223.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 1,275ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 25 Jul 2016 – 25 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 25 Jul; 2016
Heat detections: 24; in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start: 56; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 186MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul25 Jul

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

38°high

33km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 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

Gercüş 20,484 inhabitants · 5.6 km from the town

1,235 ha reached on 25 Jul

1.3 %
Midyat 118,625 inhabitants · 13.6 km from the town where it started

40 ha reached on 24 Jul

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

Agricultural areas49 %
Other natural land48 %
Scrub and transitional woodland2.6 %

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	Danger (FWI)
24 Jul	38.1 °C	12 %	33 km/h	Extreme 56
25 Jul	37.8 °C	12 %	33 km/h	Extreme 56
26 Jul after	37.6 °C	9 %	35 km/h	Extreme 59
27 Jul after	37.2 °C	10 %	30 km/h	Extreme 53
28 Jul after	37.6 °C	12 %	30 km/h	Extreme 52
29 Jul after	37.5 °C	9 %	27 km/h	Extreme 52
30 Jul after	36.2 °C	9 %	47 km/h	Extreme 66
31 Jul after	36.9 °C	10 %	38 km/h	Extreme 64
1 Aug after	37.7 °C	8 %	45 km/h	Extreme 68
2 Aug after	38.2 °C	8 %	25 km/h	Extreme 53
3 Aug after	37.9 °C	10 %	22 km/h	Extreme 54
4 Aug after	39.5 °C	9 %	20 km/h	Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Jul 2016

After · 1 Aug 2016

Before After

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 22 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak15 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1024 µg/m³

22232425262728

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)

Detections table · 24Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Türkiye ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Midyat fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2016 and 25 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,275 hectares (12.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gercüş (1,235 ha, 1.3 %); Midyat (40 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.6 km of Gercüş. 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 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
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

OGM · Orman Genel Müdürlüğü ↗
AFAD ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

Where it burned