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Balakliia fire, 12 August 2024 Балаклійський район · Balakliia

Out · last measured on 14 Aug 2024

The fire started on 12 August 2024 in Balakliia, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 203 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 201th largest in Kharkiv Oblast since 2016 (of 558 with a page). Number 942 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bakhmut · 2024Lyman · 2024Balakliia · 2024Izium · 2025

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
203ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
12 Aug 2024 – 14 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Aug
2024
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

26°high
57km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Balakliia Балаклійський район 5.2 km from the centre where it started
    203 ha
    0.1 %

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 areas49 %
  • Other natural land31 %
  • Mixed forest18 %
  • Artificial surfaces2.4 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.50 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.50 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 28 % of the area in Ukraine Strong wind: 20 % of the area in Ukraine

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
12 Aug 25.2 °C 28 % 57 km/h 1.1 mm Extreme 59
13 Aug 24.0 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 49
14 Aug 25.7 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Aug after 26.1 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
16 Aug after 27.8 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Aug after 29.5 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug after 31.9 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Aug after 34.1 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Aug after 35.7 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Aug after 35.6 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
22 Aug after 36.8 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 92
23 Aug after 32.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 68
24 Aug after 33.5 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 58.6, a minimum humidity of 28% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2020: 25.

FWI at the start 58.6
Minimum humidity 28 %
Days without rain 7
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bakhmut fire, July 2024
202 ha 6 days FWI 59.7 Min. humidity 28 % 127 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.4 mm on 4 Aug.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
195 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 25 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (203 ha against a median of 195 ha) and lasted 3 days, against 2 days.

In 7 of 25, 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 5.6 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
57km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 25, with a median of 5.6 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 2020.
  • 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 · 5 Aug 2024
After · 21 Aug 2024

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 14 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 9 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak9 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1010 µg/m³
Optical depth0.39
10 Aug12 Aug14 Aug16 Aug
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 Balakliia fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2024 and 14 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 203 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Balakliia (203 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Balakliia and came within 5.2 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 25.7 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
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 2020 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 25. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 195 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 25, 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 5.6 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.