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Antratsyt fire, 27 September 2023 Антрацитівський район · Antratsyt

Out · last measured on 2 Oct 2023

The fire started on 27 September 2023 in Antratsyt, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 362 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 241th largest in Luhansk Oblast since 2016 (of 909 with a page). Number 109 in Ukraine in 2023, of 491.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
362ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
27 Sept 2023 – 2 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
27 Sept
2023
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

26°high
39km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Antratsyt Антрацитівський район 30,070 inhabitants · 32.0 km from the centre where it started
    363 ha
    0.2 %

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 areas72 %
  • Other natural land24 %
  • Mixed forest3.3 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
27 Sept 25.9 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Sept 26.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept 25.5 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Sept 25.2 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Oct 24.4 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Oct 22.3 °C 39 % 38 km/h 2.2 mm High 25
3 Oct after 17.6 °C 48 % 41 km/h 3.1 mm Low 8

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 49.8, a minimum humidity of 24% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.

FWI at the start 49.8
Minimum humidity 24 %
Days without rain 11
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Antratsyt fire, September 2024
102 ha 1 day FWI 50.0 Min. humidity 23 % 19 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
150 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 24 had it)

It was 2.4 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 6 days, against 2 days.

Only 1 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 8 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.7 mm.

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

3.1 mmfirst rain
3 Octthe day after it ended
39km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Oct, and on 3 Oct 3.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 24, with a median of 5.7 mm.

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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Sept 2023
After · 9 Oct 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 4 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1039 µg/m³
Optical depth0.47
27 Sept29 Sept1 Oct3 Oct5 Oct
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Antratsyt fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 September 2023 to 2 October 2023 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 September 2023 to 2 October 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 362 hectares (3.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Antratsyt (363 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Antratsyt and came within 32.0 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 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 24. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 150 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 1 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 8 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.7 mm.

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: 101 · 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.

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 101 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 September 2023 to 2 October 2023. 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (Public Domain). 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.