Cardeto fire, July 2021 Reggio di Calabria, Cardeto
The fire started on 29 July 2021 in Cardeto, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 246 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 32th largest in Reggio di Calabria since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 123 in Italy in 2021, of 291.
The power measured by the satellite is low (20.4 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
- 246ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 29 Jul 2021 – 1 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 22
- in a single hotspot: 20 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 229MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 9 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: 97 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Reggio di Calabria 170,951 inhabitants · 8.7 km from the town233 ha reached on 1 Aug1.0 %
-
13 ha reached on 29 Jul0.4 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland28 %
- Other natural land22 %
- Mixed forest19 %
- Broadleaved forest17 %
- Agricultural areas11 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub3.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jul | 27.1 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 30 Jul | 29.5 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Jul | 27.7 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Aug | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Aug after | 25.1 °C | 58 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 50 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 4 Aug after | 31.3 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 54 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Aug after | 23.4 °C | 54 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Aug after | 25.5 °C | 49 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 9 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 11 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 22Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 894 haReggio di Calabria18 July 2023 · 6 days · 4 km away
- 1,088 haReggio di Calabria27 July 2021 · 4 days · 7 km away
- 911 haReggio di Calabria11 July 2017 · 3 days · 7 km away
- 1,199 haReggio di Calabria18 July 2023 · 4 days · 9 km away
- 7,096 haBagaladi4 August 2021 · 6 days · 13 km away
- 3,114 haMotta San GiovanniJuly 2023 · 6 days · 13 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cardeto fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2021 and 1 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 246 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Reggio di Calabria (233 ha, 1.0 %); Cardeto (13 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.0 km of Cardeto. 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 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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
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
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.