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Bompensiere fire, June 2016 Bompensiere, Mussomeli

Out · last measured on 16 Jun 2016

The fire started on 16 June 2016 in Bompensiere, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 257 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 40th largest in Caltanissetta since 2016 (of 149 with a page). Number 32 in Italy in 2016, of 78.

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
257ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
16 Jun 2016 – 16 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Jun
2016
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

35°high
65km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 19 Jun.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bompensiere 491 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town where it started
    225 ha
    11 %
  2. Mussomeli 9,913 inhabitants · 9.6 km from the town
    32 ha
    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 areas100 %

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)
16 Jun 34.7 °C 29 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jun after 34.8 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Jun after 32.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Jun after 27.9 °C 40 % 48 km/h 1.2 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jun 2016
After · 23 Jun 2016

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 17 June 2016 the air beside the fire reached 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak47 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM10102 µg/m³
141516171819
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 Bompensiere fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 16 June 2016 and 16 June 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 257 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bompensiere (225 ha, 11 %); Mussomeli (32 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.4 km of Bompensiere. 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 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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

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.