Arrianon fire, August 2023 Αρριανών · Arrianon, Komotinis
The fire started on 21 August 2023 in Arrianon, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 543 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 14th largest in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 18 in Greece in 2023, of 34.
- Burnt area
- 543ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 21 Aug 2023 – 22 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 51
- in a single hotspot: 260 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- sum of detected power
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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 24 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
542 ha reached on 21 Aug0.7 %
-
1 ha reached on 22 Aug0.0 %
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
- Broadleaved forest42 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub28 %
- Agricultural areas23 %
- Artificial surfaces3.5 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland3.3 %
- Other land cover1.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 37.4 °C | 15 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Aug | 36.7 °C | 25 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Aug after | 36.2 °C | 25 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
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 24 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 16 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 · 51Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,143 haIasmou ΙάσμουOctober 2022 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 438 haKirkovo КирковоOctober 2022 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 301 haArrianon ΑρριανώνAugust 2024 · 2 days · 21 km away
- 2,764 haIasmou ΙάσμουAugust 2023 · 1 day · 23 km away
- 104 haKomotinisNovember 2022 · 2 days · 27 km away
- 96,610 haAlexandroupolis ΑλεξανδρούποληςAugust 2023 · 24 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Arrianon fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2023 and 22 August 2023: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 543 hectares (5.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arrianon (542 ha, 0.7 %); Komotinis (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199
Satellite cross-check
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
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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.