Acquaformosa fire, August 2024 Acquaformosa, San Donato di Ninea, Altomonte
The fire started on 13 August 2024 in Acquaformosa, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 118 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 117th largest in Cosenza since 2016 (of 145 with a page). Number 91 in Italy in 2024, of 112.
The power measured by the satellite is low (14.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
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- Burnt area
- 118ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 13 Aug 2024 – 15 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 7
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 13MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 50 ha in 2017, 65 ha in 2019, 21 ha in 2020, 20 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 94 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
116 ha reached on 13 Aug5.2 %
-
San Donato di Ninea 1,101 inhabitants · 5.2 km from the centre1 ha0.0 %
-
Altomonte 4,019 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the centre1 ha0.0 %
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
- Agricultural areas44 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland35 %
- Broadleaved forest21 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug | 34.1 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 14 Aug | 34.3 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Aug | 36.4 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 2.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 18 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 · 7Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 631 haMorano CalabroJuly 2026 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 1,617 haCastrovillariJuly 2026 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 640 haCassano all'IonioAugust 2019 · 1 day · 24 km away
- 609 haSanta Domenica TalaoSeptember 2025 · 2 days · 26 km away
- 643 haSanta Domenica TalaoJuly 2017 · 8 days · 28 km away
- 649 haAcriAugust 2021 · 4 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Acquaformosa fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2024 and 15 August 2024: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 118 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Acquaformosa (116 ha, 5.2 %); San Donato di Ninea (1 ha, 0.0 %); Altomonte (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Acquaformosa and came within 1.7 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 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (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 · 1515 · 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 7 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.
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 ADM4 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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.