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Bitonto fire, August 2021 Bitonto

Out · last measured on 5 Aug 2021

The fire started on 5 August 2021 in Bitonto, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 154 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Bari since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 185 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

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
154ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
5 Aug 2021 – 5 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
5 Aug
2021
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 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

  1. Bitonto where it started
    154 ha
    0.9 %

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

  • Other natural land39 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland36 %
  • Coniferous forest24 %
  • Agricultural areas1.3 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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)
5 Aug 32.9 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Aug after 30.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug after 31.9 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug after 37.6 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Aug after 36.7 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Aug after 34.6 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Aug after 32.1 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
12 Aug after 31.4 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Aug after 33.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Aug after 32.2 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Aug after 34.1 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jul 2021
After · 12 Aug 2021

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 5 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1042 µg/m³
345678
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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bitonto fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 5 August 2021 and 5 August 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 154 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bitonto (154 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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

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
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 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.