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Sarin fire, 28 June 2019 Sarin, Ain al Arab, Tell Abiad

Out · last detection 28 Jun 2019, 22:50 UTC

The fire started on 28 June 2019 in Sarin, Syria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,861 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Aleppo since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 22 in Syria in 2019, of 163.

Burnt area
1,861ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
28 Jun 2019 – 28 Jun 2019
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
28 Jun
2019
Heat detections
19
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
186MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jun28 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

28

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
49km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 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. Sarin where it started
    1,072 ha reached on 25 Jun
    0.5 %
  2. Ain al Arab
    785 ha reached on 28 Jun
    1.0 %
  3. Tell Abiad
    10 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

  • Agricultural areas96 %
  • Other natural land4.5 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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 Jun 41.2 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Jun 43.2 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
27 Jun 42.8 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
28 Jun 40.0 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
29 Jun after 38.8 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
30 Jun after 34.2 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
1 Jul after 34.1 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
2 Jul after 37.1 °C 3 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
3 Jul after 36.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
4 Jul after 40.3 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
5 Jul after 40.3 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
6 Jul after 39.8 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
7 Jul after 40.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
8 Jul after 39.8 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
9 Jul after 39.3 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
10 Jul after 39.8 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jun 2019
After · 5 Jul 2019

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 · 19Every 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 Syria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sarin fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 28 June 2019 and 28 June 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,861 hectares (18.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sarin (1,072 ha, 0.5 %); Ain al Arab (785 ha, 1.0 %); Tell Abiad (10 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 78, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Syria (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.

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.

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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 ADM3 (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 slightly from each country’s official figure.