How long did the Buscemi fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 30 June 2021 and 1 July 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 118 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Buscemi (117 ha, 2.3 %); Palazzolo Acreide (1 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Palazzolo Acreide. 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 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.

IT · Italy · 2021-06-30 → 2021-07-01

Buscemi fire, June 2021 Buscemi, Palazzolo Acreide

Out · last detection 1 Jul 2021, 12:49 UTC

The fire started on 30 June 2021 in Buscemi, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 118 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Siracusa since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 244 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.2 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: 118ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 30 Jun 2021 – 1 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 30 Jun; 2021
Heat detections: 9; in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 36MW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Jul 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jun1 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

301

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

53km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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

Buscemi 950 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the town where it started

117 ha reached on 30 Jun

2.3 %
Palazzolo Acreide 8,101 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town

1 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

Agricultural areas78 %
Other natural land18 %
Broadleaved forest2.5 %
Sclerophyllous scrub2.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

ZEPA + LIC Valle del Fiume Anapo, Cavagrande del Calcinara, Cugni di Sortino ITA090009

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)
30 Jun	36.2 °C	22 %	53 km/h	1.1 mm	High 31
1 Jul	30.0 °C	38 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
2 Jul after	30.8 °C	36 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
3 Jul after	29.6 °C	34 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
4 Jul after	32.2 °C	22 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
5 Jul after	32.4 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
6 Jul after	28.6 °C	46 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
7 Jul after	30.3 °C	39 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
8 Jul after	30.9 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
9 Jul after	33.7 °C	29 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
10 Jul after	29.3 °C	43 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
11 Jul after	28.8 °C	39 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Jun 2021

After · 8 Jul 2021

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 30 June 2021 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak38 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1085 µg/m³

WHO 15

2829301234

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 · 9Every 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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Buscemi fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 30 June 2021 and 1 July 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 118 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Buscemi (117 ha, 2.3 %); Palazzolo Acreide (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Palazzolo Acreide. 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 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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

Protezione Civile ↗
Carabinieri Forestali (1515) ↗

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

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

What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned