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Camastra fire, July 2016 Licata, Palma di Montechiaro, Camastra

Out · last measured on 4 Jul 2016

The fire started on 3 July 2016 in Camastra, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 181 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 143th largest in Agrigento since 2016 (of 289 with a page). Number 45 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
181ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
3 Jul 2016 – 4 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
3 Jul
2016
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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. Licata 34,287 inhabitants · 16.3 km from the town
    84 ha
    0.5 %
  2. Palma di Montechiaro 21,373 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the town
    73 ha
    1.0 %
  3. Camastra 2,010 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town where it started
    24 ha
    1.5 %

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 areas77 %
  • Other natural land23 %

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)
3 Jul 37.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Jul 33.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jul after 31.5 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Jul after 32.4 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Jul after 32.6 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jul after 31.1 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Jul after 34.1 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Jul after 32.5 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Jul after 32.5 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jul after 33.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Jul after 34.4 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Jul after 33.2 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jun 2016
After · 11 Jul 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Camastra fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 3 July 2016 and 4 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 181 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Licata (84 ha, 0.5 %); Palma di Montechiaro (73 ha, 1.0 %); Camastra (24 ha, 1.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.3 km of Camastra. 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 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 41 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.