How long did the Aragona fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 31 July 2016 and 31 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 139 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sant'Angelo Muxaro (117 ha, 1.8 %); Aragona (18 ha, 0.2 %); Santa Elisabetta (4 ha, 0.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.4 km of Sant'Angelo Muxaro. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.

IT · Italy · 2016-07-31 → 2016-07-31

Aragona fire, July 2016 Sant'Angelo Muxaro, Aragona, Santa Elisabetta

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2016, 12:24 UTC

The fire started on 31 July 2016 in Aragona, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 139 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 200th largest in Agrigento since 2016 (of 289 with a page). Number 57 in Italy in 2016, of 78.

Burnt area: 139ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 31 Jul 2016 – 31 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 31 Jul; 2016
Heat detections: 4; in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 131MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jul31 Jul

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

33°high

32km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 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

Sant'Angelo Muxaro 1,152 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town

117 ha reached on 31 Jul

1.8 %
Aragona 8,766 inhabitants · 6.4 km from the town where it started

18 ha

0.2 %
Santa Elisabetta 2,182 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town

4 ha reached on 31 Jul

0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.

What burned

Agricultural areas51 %
Sclerophyllous scrub49 %

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)
31 Jul	32.7 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Aug after	34.2 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.4 mm	High 36
2 Aug after	31.4 °C	35 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
3 Aug after	31.1 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
4 Aug after	30.0 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
5 Aug after	28.9 °C	58 %	30 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
6 Aug after	30.2 °C	43 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
7 Aug after	28.5 °C	39 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
8 Aug after	28.7 °C	45 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
9 Aug after	29.9 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
10 Aug after	29.3 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Jul 2016

After · 7 Aug 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 1 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1049 µg/m³

WHO 15

293031123

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

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Aragona fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 31 July 2016 and 31 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 139 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sant'Angelo Muxaro (117 ha, 1.8 %); Aragona (18 ha, 0.2 %); Santa Elisabetta (4 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.4 km of Sant'Angelo Muxaro. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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

Protezione Civile ↗
Carabinieri Forestali (1515) ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 112 · 1515.

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.

Where it burned