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Silopi fire, 2 July 2016 Silopi

Out · last measured on 2 Jul 2016

The fire started on 2 July 2016 in Silopi, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 103 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 189th largest in Şırnak since 2016 (of 192 with a page). Number 219 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
103ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
2 Jul 2016 – 2 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
2 Jul
2016
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

40°high
28km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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. Silopi 134,754 inhabitants · 15.5 km from the town where it started
    103 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Other natural land55 %
  • Agricultural areas45 %

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)
2 Jul 39.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Jul after 40.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Jul after 40.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jul after 39.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Jul after 37.2 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Jul after 38.8 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Jul after 39.7 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Jul after 39.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Jul after 38.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jul after 39.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Jul after 39.3 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jun 2016
After · 9 Jul 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 5 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak21 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1042 µg/m³
3012345
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 Silopi fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 2 July 2016 and 2 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 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Silopi (103 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 15.5 km of Silopi. 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 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.