Burned area
satellite only100ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
TR · Türkiye · –
Yüksekova fire, 7 November 2021 Yüksekova
Out · last detection 8 Nov 2021, 22:51 UTC
The fire started on 7 November 2021 in Yüksekova, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 100 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 110th largest in Hakkâri since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 138 in Türkiye in 2021, of 138.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only7days
7 Nov 2021 to 13 Nov 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 8 Nov 2021, 22:51 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only7 Nov 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 7 Nov 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only4
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 12 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 7 Nov 2021 – 13 Nov 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only19MW
Total radiative power on 8 November 2021; hotspots that day: 3.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Nov 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model13.1FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 7 Nov 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model14.8°C · 24% RH
High of 14.8 °C and minimum humidity of 24% on 9 November 2021; gusts of 49 km/h on 12 November 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 7 Nov 2021 – 13 Nov 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 100 ha
- Dates
- 7 Nov 2021 – 13 Nov 2021
- Name
- Yüksekova
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/yuksekova-2021-11?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire yuksekova-2021-11.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-11-07 | 1 | 3 | 13.5 | 0.5 | 27 | 11.7 | 42.1 | 0 | 13.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-11-08 | 3 | 19 | 14 | -0.8 | 17 | 7.3 | 24.8 | 0 | 14.5 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-11-09 | 0 | 0 | 14.8 | -0.5 | 24 | 6.3 | 22.7 | 0 | 16 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-11-10 | 0 | 0 | 12.8 | 4.9 | 41 | 9.3 | 31 | 0 | 15.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-11-11 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2.1 | 63 | 8.4 | 32.8 | 3.3 | 4.5 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2021-11-12 | 0 | 0 | 6.4 | 0.5 | 56 | 15.5 | 49.3 | 0 | 3.1 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2021-11-13 | 0 | 0 | 12 | -1.8 | 34 | 7.5 | 19.8 | 0 | 3.2 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2021-11-14 | 0 | 0 | 13.9 | -1.3 | 32 | 7.4 | 19.1 | 0 | 7.7 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-11-15 | 0 | 0 | 12.3 | -0.1 | 33 | 8 | 25.6 | 0 | 11.5 | moderado | 0 |
| 2021-11-16 | 0 | 0 | 11.7 | 0.5 | 34 | 7.9 | 27 | 0 | 11 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-11-17 | 0 | 0 | 10.7 | -1.7 | 35 | 7.5 | 26.3 | 0 | 11.8 | moderado | 0 |
| 2021-11-18 | 0 | 0 | 11.7 | -2.6 | 30 | 7 | 17.6 | 0 | 11.7 | moderado | 0 |
| 2021-11-19 | 0 | 0 | 10.1 | 0.2 | 32 | 9.7 | 33.5 | 0 | 14.3 | moderado | 0 |
| 2021-11-20 | 0 | 0 | 7.8 | 2.8 | 51 | 12.2 | 38.2 | 0.4 | 13.5 | moderado | 0 |
| 2021-11-21 | 0 | 0 | 11.9 | 3.5 | 40 | 7.2 | 20.2 | 0 | 9.6 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-11-22 | 0 | 0 | 10.6 | 1.3 | 46 | 9.4 | 29.5 | 0 | 11.7 | moderado | 0 |
| 2021-11-23 | 0 | 0 | 10.5 | 1.7 | 49 | 9.4 | 31 | 0 | 10.8 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 100ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 7days
- 7 Nov 2021 – 13 Nov 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Nov
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 13
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 11MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
7 Nov13 Nov
8 Nov 2021
How it evolved, day by day
7 Nov
8 Nov
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
15°high
49km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 52 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
100 ha reached on 7 Nov0.0 %
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 land100 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Nov | 13.5 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 8 Nov | 14.0 °C | 17 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 9 Nov | 14.8 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 10 Nov | 12.8 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 11 Nov | 7.0 °C | 63 % | 33 km/h | 3.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 12 Nov | 6.4 °C | 56 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 13 Nov | 12.0 °C | 34 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 14 Nov after | 13.9 °C | 32 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 15 Nov after | 12.3 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 16 Nov after | 11.7 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 17 Nov after | 10.7 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 18 Nov after | 11.7 °C | 30 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 19 Nov after | 10.1 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 20 Nov after | 7.8 °C | 51 % | 38 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Nov after | 11.9 °C | 40 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 22 Nov after | 10.6 °C | 46 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 23 Nov after | 10.5 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 13.1, a minimum humidity of 27% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 13.
FWI at the start
13.1
Minimum humidity
27 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Yüksekova fire, 7 November 2021
100 ha
7 days
FWI 13.1
Min. humidity 27 %
Yüksekova fire, November 2024
123 ha
1 day
FWI 7.6
Min. humidity 27 %
6 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.8 mm on 11 Nov.
Silopi fire, November 2019
118 ha
6 days
FWI 13.9
Min. humidity 29 %
148 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Aralık fire, July 2025
149 ha
1 day
FWI 12.1
Min. humidity 32 %
247 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 13 Jul.
Doğubayazıt fire, July 2025
111 ha
1 day
FWI 10.6
Min. humidity 31 %
243 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 13 Jul.
Cizre fire, November 2019
205 ha
1 day
FWI 18.5
Min. humidity 26 %
178 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 13. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
49km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 13 Nov, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 31 Oct 2021
After · 20 Nov 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 10 November 2021 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1026 µg/m³
WHO 15
5 Nov7 Nov9 Nov11 Nov
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)
Detections table · 4Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV
Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,492 haYüksekova7 November 2021 · 7 days · 6 km away
- 1,649 haŞemdinliMay 2021 · 8 days · 33 km away
- 1,500 haAl-Amadiya1 August 2019 · 5 days · 34 km away
- 1,304 haAl-ZibarSeptember 2020 · 5 days · 34 km away
- 1,725 haAl-AmadiyaSeptember 2020 · 11 days · 36 km away
- 1,350 haAl-AmadiyaAugust 2020 · 3 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yüksekova fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 November 2021 to 13 November 2021 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 November 2021 to 8 November 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 100 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Yüksekova (100 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Yüksekova and came within 6.3 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 14.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- 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.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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 7 November 2021 to 8 November 2021. 4 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 2020, 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.