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Catanzaro fire, August 2021 Catanzaro, Simeri Crichi

Out · last measured on 4 Aug 2021

The fire started on 1 August 2021 in Catanzaro, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 749 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Catanzaro since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 30 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

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
749ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
1 Aug 2021 – 4 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2021
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

36°high
39km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Catanzaro 84,670 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town where it started
    451 ha reached on 1 Aug
    4.0 %
  2. Simeri Crichi 4,722 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    300 ha reached on 1 Aug
    6.5 %

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

  • Broadleaved forest62 %
  • Agricultural areas27 %
  • Mixed forest7.2 %
  • Other natural land1.9 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.5 %

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)
1 Aug 35.9 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
2 Aug 31.8 °C 55 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
3 Aug 32.8 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
4 Aug 34.7 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
5 Aug after 29.1 °C 46 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
6 Aug after 26.9 °C 65 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
7 Aug after 29.9 °C 48 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
8 Aug after 34.1 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Aug after 35.2 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Aug after 36.9 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Aug after 35.2 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Aug after 32.9 °C 45 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Aug after 32.5 °C 42 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Aug after 32.5 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 1 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak40 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM1072 µg/m³
30311234567
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

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Catanzaro fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 1 August 2021 and 4 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 749 hectares (7.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Catanzaro (451 ha, 4.0 %); Simeri Crichi (300 ha, 6.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.5 km of Catanzaro. 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 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
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.