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Silopi fire, August 2020 Silopi, Cizre

Out · last measured on 14 Aug 2020

The fire started on 14 August 2020 in Silopi, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 171 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 135th largest in Şırnak since 2016 (of 192 with a page). Number 133 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
171ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
14 Aug 2020 – 14 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Aug
2020
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

39°high
22km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 116 ha in 2017, 70 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 137 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Silopi 134,754 inhabitants · 14.6 km from the town where it started
    130 ha
    0.2 %
  2. Cizre 143,124 inhabitants · 17.2 km from the town
    41 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 land73 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland27 %

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)
14 Aug 38.7 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Aug after 39.0 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Aug after 38.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Aug after 37.5 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Aug after 38.0 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Aug after 37.9 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Aug after 38.4 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Aug after 37.2 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Aug after 33.7 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.8 mm Very high 39
23 Aug after 34.2 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Aug after 35.0 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2020
After · 21 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 15 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1038 µg/m³
121314151617
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 14 August 2020 and 14 August 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 171 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Silopi (130 ha, 0.2 %); Cizre (41 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 14.6 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 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 22 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
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.