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IT · Italy ·

Buseto Palizzolo fire, August 2021 Castellammare del Golfo, Buseto Palizzolo

Out · last measured on 4 Aug 2021

The fire started on 4 August 2021 in Buseto Palizzolo, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 187 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 43th largest in Trapani since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 165 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

Compare with…

Suggestions: San Biagio Platani · 2016Torretta · 2023Buseto Palizzolo · 2019Buseto Palizzolo · 2020

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
187ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
4 Aug 2021 – 4 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
4 Aug
2021
Danger at start
63
Extreme · FWI index
Natura 2000
45%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
53km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 23 ha in 2017, 36 ha in 2019, 46 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 72 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Castellammare del Golfo 14,610 inhabitants · 9.7 km from the centre
    111 ha
    0.9 %
  2. Buseto Palizzolo 2,761 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the centre where it started
    76 ha
    1.0 %

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 areas68 %
  • Broadleaved forest23 %
  • Coniferous forest9.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 45 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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: 23 % of the area in Italy Strong wind: 15 % of the area in Italy

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
4 Aug 33.7 °C 31 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Aug after 30.0 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Aug after 29.7 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Aug after 32.4 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Aug after 31.8 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Aug after 34.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Aug after 36.2 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Aug after 38.0 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Aug after 35.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Aug after 33.3 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Aug after 32.3 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.7 mm High 36

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 63.4, a minimum humidity of 31% and 15 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.

FWI at the start 63.4
Minimum humidity 31 %
Days without rain 15
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

San Biagio Platani fire, June 2016
350 ha 1 day FWI 60.7 Min. humidity 33 % 87 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 19 Jun.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
257 ha
median area
7 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 27 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (187 ha against a median of 257 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 1 day.

In 12 of 27, 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 3.3 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
53km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 4 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 27, with a median of 3.3 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 2016.
  • 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 · 28 Jul 2021
After · 11 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Buseto Palizzolo fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 4 August 2021 and 4 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 187 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Castellammare del Golfo (111 ha, 0.9 %); Buseto Palizzolo (76 ha, 1.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Buseto Palizzolo and came within 4.3 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 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 27. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 257 ha; 7 % went past 1,000 ha. In 12 of 27, 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 3.3 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: 112 · 1515 · 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 112 · 1515.

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 2020, 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 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.