How long did the Cefalù fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 16 June 2016 and 16 June 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,436 hectares (34.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gratteri (1,736 ha, 45 %); Cefalù (1,268 ha, 19 %); Lascari (353 ha, 35 %); Collesano (85 ha, 0.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Gratteri. 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 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 88 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

IT · Italy · 2016-06-16 → 2016-06-16

Cefalù fire, June 2016 Gratteri, Cefalù, Lascari

Out · last detection 17 Jun 2016, 01:29 UTC

The fire started on 16 June 2016 in Cefalù, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,436 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Palermo since 2016 (of 178 with a page). Number 2 in Italy in 2016, of 78.

Burnt area: 3,436ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 16 Jun 2016 – 16 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit: 4; municipalities
Started on: 16 Jun; 2016
Heat detections: 71; in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start: 10; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 2.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Jun 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jun16 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1617

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high

88km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.6 mm on 19 Jun.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Gratteri 859 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town

1,736 ha reached on 16 Jun

45 %
Cefalù 13,881 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town where it started

1,268 ha reached on 15 Jun

19 %
Lascari 3,677 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town

353 ha reached on 16 Jun

35 %
Collesano 3,650 inhabitants · 5.1 km from the town

85 ha reached on 16 Jun

0.8 %

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 areas55 %
Broadleaved forest21 %
Other natural land9.6 %
Sclerophyllous scrub7.7 %
Scrub and transitional woodland3.1 %
Coniferous forest2.4 %
Artificial surfaces1.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 21 %

LIC Complesso Pizzo Dipilo e Querceti su calcare ITA020017
ZEPA Parco delle Madonie ITA020050

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.

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)
15 Jun	25.1 °C	50 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
16 Jun	34.3 °C	24 %	88 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Jun after	24.7 °C	64 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
18 Jun after	22.6 °C	57 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 11
19 Jun after	21.1 °C	64 %	49 km/h	8.6 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Jun 2016

After · 23 Jun 2016

Before After

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 17 June 2016 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM10148 µg/m³

WHO 15

1314151617181920

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)

Detections table · 71Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cefalù fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 16 June 2016 and 16 June 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,436 hectares (34.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gratteri (1,736 ha, 45 %); Cefalù (1,268 ha, 19 %); Lascari (353 ha, 35 %); Collesano (85 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Gratteri. 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 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 88 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

Protezione Civile ↗
Carabinieri Forestali (1515) ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned