Skip to content
worldfires
IR · Iran · →

Pol-e-Dokhtar fire, July 2020 Pol-e-Dokhtar

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2020, 22:44 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2020 in Pol-e-Dokhtar, Iran, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,110 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Lorestan since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 41 in Iran in 2020, of 49.

Burnt area
1,110ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
25 Jul 2020 – 27 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
25 Jul
2020
Heat detections
63
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
640MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

252627

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
37km/h · peak gust
10%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.

What happened to each town

  1. Pol-e-Dokhtar where it started
    1,113 ha
    0.3 %

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)
25 Jul 34.8 °C 25 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm High 32
26 Jul 36.9 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jul 39.6 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Jul after 39.2 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Jul after 39.6 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Jul after 39.8 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Jul after 37.9 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Aug after 35.9 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Aug after 35.6 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Aug after 35.3 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Aug after 36.5 °C 6 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Aug after 33.9 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Aug after 32.8 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2020
After · 3 Aug 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.

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 Pol-e-Dokhtar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 July 2020 and 27 July 2020: 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 1,110 hectares (11.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pol-e-Dokhtar (1,113 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
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.