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Siverek fire, July 2019 Siverek

Out · last measured on 16 Jul 2019

The fire started on 16 July 2019 in Siverek, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 243 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Şanlıurfa since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 55 in Türkiye in 2019, of 138.

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
243ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
16 Jul 2019 – 16 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Jul
2019
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
38km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 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. Siverek 258,265 inhabitants · 37.3 km from the town where it started
    243 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 land76 %
  • Agricultural areas24 %

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)
16 Jul 33.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Jul after 35.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Jul after 32.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Jul after 35.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jul after 38.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Jul after 40.2 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Jul after 38.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Jul after 38.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jul after 35.2 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Jul after 35.4 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Jul after 36.0 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2019
After · 23 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 18 July 2019 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1052 µg/m³
141516171819
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 Siverek fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 16 July 2019 and 16 July 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 243 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Siverek (243 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 37.3 km of Siverek. 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 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.