How long did the Zakho fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2016 and 25 August 2016: 19 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,891 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Zakho (2,898 ha, 2.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Iraq (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

IQ · Iraq · 2016-08-07 → 2016-08-25

Zakho fire, August 2016 Zakho

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2016, 21:53 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2016 in Zakho, Iraq, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,891 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Dohuk since 2016 (of 35 with a page). The largest in Iraq in 2016, of 23.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 2,891ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 19days; 7 Aug 2016 – 25 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 7 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 163; in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 778MW; sum of detected power

Play back 25 Aug 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

7891011121415161718192021222425

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

46km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 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

Zakho where it started

2,898 ha

2.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

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 Aug	32.3 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
8 Aug	33.5 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
9 Aug	34.1 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Aug	34.4 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
11 Aug	32.8 °C	18 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
12 Aug	32.5 °C	19 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
13 Aug	32.9 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
14 Aug	33.2 °C	16 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
15 Aug	34.4 °C	16 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
16 Aug	33.6 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
17 Aug	30.9 °C	16 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
18 Aug	31.7 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
19 Aug	34.1 °C	19 %	36 km/h	1.4 mm	High 32
20 Aug	34.4 °C	17 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Aug	35.6 °C	13 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
22 Aug	34.2 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
23 Aug	33.6 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
24 Aug	34.2 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Aug	34.5 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
26 Aug after	33.9 °C	16 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
27 Aug after	34.6 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
28 Aug after	34.6 °C	17 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
29 Aug after	34.8 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
30 Aug after	35.1 °C	16 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
31 Aug after	34.6 °C	17 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
1 Sept after	31.9 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
2 Sept after	30.8 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
3 Sept after	30.3 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
4 Sept after	28.4 °C	22 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 31 Jul 2016

After · 1 Sept 2016

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 163Every 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

All fires in Iraq ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Zakho fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2016 and 25 August 2016: 19 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,891 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Zakho (2,898 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Iraq (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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 (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 from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned