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Midyat fire, 4 September 2020 Midyat, Savur, Ömerli

Out · last measured on 4 Sept 2020

The fire started on 4 September 2020 in Midyat, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 129 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 122th largest in Mardin since 2016 (of 131 with a page). Number 173 in Türkiye in 2020, of 212.

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
129ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
4 Sept 2020 – 4 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
4 Sept
2020
Danger at start
64
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 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. Midyat 118,625 inhabitants · 26.9 km from the town where it started
    76 ha
    0.1 %
  2. Savur 27,304 inhabitants · 20.7 km from the town
    39 ha
    0.0 %
  3. Ömerli 14,233 inhabitants · 15.1 km from the town
    15 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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland63 %
  • Agricultural areas29 %
  • Other natural land8.5 %

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)
4 Sept 36.7 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
5 Sept after 38.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
6 Sept after 38.0 °C 10 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
7 Sept after 37.1 °C 9 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
8 Sept after 36.5 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept after 35.6 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept after 36.3 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept after 36.0 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Sept after 35.0 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept after 38.0 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept after 37.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2020
After · 11 Sept 2020

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 6 September 2020 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1034 µg/m³
234567
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 4 September 2020 and 4 September 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 129 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Midyat (76 ha, 0.1 %); Savur (39 ha, 0.0 %); Ömerli (15 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 15.1 km of Ömerli. 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 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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

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.