Tameside fire, June 2018 Tameside, Derbyshire, Oldham
The fire started on 25 June 2018 in Tameside, United Kingdom, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,127 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in England since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 5 in United Kingdom in 2018, of 19.
- Burnt area
- 1,127ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 25 Jun 2018 – 30 Jun 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Jun
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 468
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 9 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Tameside where it started733 ha reached on 25 Jun7.2 %
-
220 ha reached on 26 Jun0.1 %
-
173 ha reached on 25 Jun1.2 %
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 land97 %
- Artificial surfaces2.6 %
Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 24 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jun | 22.6 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Jun | 23.3 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 27 Jun | 21.1 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 28 Jun | 22.2 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 29 Jun | 22.7 °C | 45 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 30 Jun | 20.3 °C | 40 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 1 Jul after | 22.6 °C | 42 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 2 Jul after | 21.2 °C | 38 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 3 Jul after | 19.4 °C | 45 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 4 Jul after | 21.6 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 5 Jul after | 22.3 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 6 Jul after | 21.6 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 7 Jul after | 22.4 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 8 Jul after | 23.3 °C | 44 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 9 Jul after | 20.0 °C | 63 % | 31 km/h | 1.4 mm | Very low 5 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 26 June 2018 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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)
Detections table · 468Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tameside fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 25 June 2018 and 30 June 2018: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,127 hectares (11.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tameside (733 ha, 7.2 %); Derbyshire (220 ha, 0.1 %); Oldham (173 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.3 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United Kingdom (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: 999 · 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
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 (Open Government Licence v3.0). 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.