Tatvan fire, 15 September 2026 Tatvan
The fire started on 15 September 2026 in Tatvan, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 142 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 15th largest in Bitlis since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 82 in Türkiye in 2026, of 109.
Compare with…
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.
- Burnt area
- 142ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 15 Sept 2026 – 18 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Sept
- 2026
- Danger at start
- 78
- Very extreme · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 25 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
142 ha0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land68 %
- Broadleaved forest29 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland2.1 %
- Agricultural areas0.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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 Sept | 26.9 °C | 14 % | 92 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 19 Sept after | 21.1 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Sept after | 22.1 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Sept after | 20.0 °C | 35 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 Sept after | 22.6 °C | 33 % | 65 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 18 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 15 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)
Other fires nearby
- 132 haTatvanAugust 2020 · 3 days · 4 km away
- 108 haTatvanAugust 2025 · 1 day · 5 km away
- 174 haHizanJuly 2018 · 3 days · 26 km away
- 392 haBitlis merkez Bitlis8 August 2020 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 220 haTatvan13 September 2026 · 1 day · 33 km away
- 353 haBitlis merkez BitlisSeptember 2018 · 5 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tatvan fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 September 2026 to 18 September 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 September 2026 to 18 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 142 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Tatvan (142 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Tatvan and came within 28.6 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 92 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 78, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 September 2026 to 18 September 2026. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.