How long did the Borova fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 28 August 2024 and 29 August 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 133 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Borova (123 ha, 0.1 %); Kupiansk (10 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 15.7 km of Borova. 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 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.

UA · Ukraine · 2024-08-28 → 2024-08-29

Borova fire, 28 August 2024 Борівський район · Borova, Kupiansk

Out · last detection 28 Aug 2024, 22:47 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2024 in Borova, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 133 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 366th largest in Kharkiv Oblast since 2016 (of 558 with a page). Number 1514 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 133ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 28 Aug 2024 – 29 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 28 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 5; in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start: 48; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 59MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug29 Aug

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

33°high

41km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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

Borova Борівський район 15.7 km from the town where it started

123 ha reached on 28 Aug

0.1 %
Kupiansk Куп'янський район 137,200 inhabitants · 16.4 km from the town

10 ha

0.0 %

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

Mixed forest69 %
Other natural land21 %
Agricultural areas9.4 %

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

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)
28 Aug	32.9 °C	23 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Aug	32.7 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
30 Aug after	32.3 °C	16 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
31 Aug after	33.4 °C	17 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
1 Sept after	30.8 °C	18 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
2 Sept after	31.0 °C	21 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
3 Sept after	27.2 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Extreme 54
4 Sept after	29.3 °C	13 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
5 Sept after	28.2 °C	26 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
6 Sept after	26.0 °C	19 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
7 Sept after	25.6 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
8 Sept after	26.1 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Aug 2024

After · 5 Sept 2024

Before After

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 26 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 10 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak10 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1038 µg/m³

Optical depth0.37

2627282930311

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)

Detections table · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Borova fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 28 August 2024 and 29 August 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 133 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Borova (123 ha, 0.1 %); Kupiansk (10 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 15.7 km of Borova. 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 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.

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

ДСНС · State Emergency Service ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

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.

Where it burned