Burned area
satellite only129ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 4 August 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
IT · Italy ·
Castrovillari fire, 3 August 2024 Castrovillari
Out · last measured on 3 Aug 2024
The fire started on 3 August 2024 in Castrovillari, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 129 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 99th largest in Cosenza since 2016 (of 145 with a page). Number 78 in Italy in 2024, of 112.
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Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only1day
3 Aug 2024 to 3 Aug 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 3 Aug 2024 – 3 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only3 Aug 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 3 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Danger at the start
model25.8FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 9.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 3 Aug 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model33.9°C · 35% RH
High of 33.9 °C and minimum humidity of 35% on 3 August 2024; gusts of 31 km/h on 3 August 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 3 Aug 2024 – 3 Aug 2024
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 129 ha
- Dates
- 3 Aug 2024 – 3 Aug 2024
- Name
- Castrovillari
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/castrovillari-2024-08?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire castrovillari-2024-08.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-08-03 | 0 | 0 | 33.9 | 24.3 | 35 | 10.8 | 31 | 0 | 25.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-04 | 0 | 0 | 31.2 | 22.5 | 52 | 10 | 27 | 0 | 20.9 | moderado | 0 |
| 2024-08-05 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 | 21.5 | 51 | 4.6 | 19.8 | 1.9 | 6.2 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
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
- 129ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 3 Aug 2024 – 3 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 3 Aug
- 2024
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
34°high
31km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 5 Aug.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 89 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
129 ha1.0 %
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 areas73 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland23 %
- Artificial surfaces4.0 %
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 Aug | 33.9 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 52 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 51 % | 20 km/h | 1.9 mm | Low 6 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 25.8, a minimum humidity of 35% and 9 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.
FWI at the start
25.8
Minimum humidity
35 %
Days without rain
9
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Castrovillari fire, 3 August 2024
129 ha
1 day
FWI 25.8
Min. humidity 35 %
Castrovillari fire, July 2026
1,617 ha
4 days
FWI 25.1
Min. humidity 34 %
2 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 24 Jul.
Rose fire, August 2017
1,251 ha
9 days
FWI 25.5
Min. humidity 36 %
51 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Morano Calabro fire, August 2021
216 ha
1 day
FWI 29.5
Min. humidity 35 %
8 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 11 Aug.
Strongoli fire, July 2017
112 ha
2 days
FWI 27.0
Min. humidity 36 %
100 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Badolato fire, August 2021
581 ha
13 days
FWI 26.4
Min. humidity 35 %
143 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 156 ha
- median area
- 12 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.6 mm
- rain at the end (median; 18 of 34 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (129 ha against a median of 156 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 3 days.
In 16 of 34, 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 2.6 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
1.9 mmfirst rain
5 Aug2 days after it ended
31km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 3 Aug, and on 5 Aug 1.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 34, with a median of 2.6 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 27 Jul 2024
After · 10 Aug 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 4 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1037 µg/m³
Optical depth0.39
1 Aug3 Aug5 Aug
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)
Other fires nearby
- 1,617 haCastrovillariJuly 2026 · 4 days · 2 km away
- 631 haMorano CalabroJuly 2026 · 7 days · 6 km away
- 640 haCassano all'IonioAugust 2019 · 1 day · 11 km away
- 609 haSanta Domenica TalaoSeptember 2025 · 2 days · 32 km away
- 538 haSanta Domenica TalaoAugust 2023 · 5 days · 32 km away
- 643 haSanta Domenica TalaoJuly 2017 · 8 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Castrovillari fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 3 August 2024 and 3 August 2024: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 129 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Castrovillari (129 ha, 1.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Castrovillari and came within 1.9 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 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.
- 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: 34. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 156 ha; 12 % went past 1,000 ha. In 16 of 34, 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 2.6 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
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.
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.