Taldu fire, June 2017 Taldu
The fire started on 18 June 2017 in Taldu, Syria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 318 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 18th largest in Homs since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 4 in Syria in 2017, of 7.
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
- 318ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 18 Jun 2017 – 18 Jun 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 18 Jun
- 2017
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 25 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
-
Taldu where it started319 ha1.6 %
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 areas99 %
- Other natural land0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jun | 31.4 °C | 36 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Jun after | 31.3 °C | 36 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Jun after | 29.4 °C | 33 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Jun after | 27.3 °C | 41 % | 59 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jun after | 29.6 °C | 36 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Jun after | 32.2 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Jun after | 34.6 °C | 23 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Jun after | 36.1 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jun after | 37.3 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 27 Jun after | 37.4 °C | 21 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Jun after | 35.0 °C | 26 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Taldu fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 18 June 2017 and 18 June 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 318 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Taldu (319 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
- 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.
Report an error
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.