Atzara fire, August 2023 Atzara, Sorgono, Samugheo
The fire started on 21 August 2023 in Atzara, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 138 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 30th largest in Nuoro since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 155 in Italy in 2023, of 207.
The power measured by the satellite is low (4.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 138ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 21 Aug 2023 – 24 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 4 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 4MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
21 Aug 2023 · 4 MW · 1
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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 18.6 mm on 28 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
80 ha reached on 21 Aug2.2 %
-
Sorgono 1,491 inhabitants · 8.3 km from the centre34 ha0.6 %
-
Samugheo 2,757 inhabitants · 7.4 km from the centre24 ha0.3 %
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
- Broadleaved forest74 %
- Agricultural areas26 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to CFVA Sardegna, this fire started on 21 August 2023 and burned 144 ha (the satellite measured 138 ha).
- Atzara Mortu Oe 21 August 2023 144 ha
Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale: perimetri delle aree percorse dal fuoco (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.
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 | 35.6 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Aug | 36.1 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Aug | 36.4 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Aug | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Aug after | 36.4 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Aug after | 35.6 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 29 % | 60 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Aug after | 22.8 °C | 54 % | 81 km/h | 18.6 mm | Low 5 |
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 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily 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 · 1Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Atzara fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 August 2023 to 24 August 2023 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 August 2023 to 22 August 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 138 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Atzara (80 ha, 2.2 %); Sorgono (34 ha, 0.6 %); Samugheo (24 ha, 0.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Atzara and came within 4.6 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 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 August 2023 to 22 August 2023. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
- Compared with CFVA Sardegna: 144 official ha against 138 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.