Cesarò fire, July 2021 Troina, Cerami, Cesarò
The fire started on 30 July 2021 in Cesarò, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 461 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Messina since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 54 in Italy in 2021, of 291.
The power measured by the satellite is low (2.3 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
- 461ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 30 Jul 2021 – 31 Jul 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 2
- in a single hotspot: 2 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 1 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Troina 8,550 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the town201 ha1.2 %
-
Cerami 1,849 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town170 ha1.8 %
-
91 ha reached on 31 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
- Other natural land80 %
- Agricultural areas8.3 %
- Mixed forest7.4 %
- Coniferous forest2.6 %
- Broadleaved forest1.7 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 60 %
- LIC Lago di Ancipa ITA060005
- ZEPA Monti Nebrodi ITA030043
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jul | 32.0 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 31 Jul | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 29 |
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 · 2Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,762 haRegalbutoJuly 2021 · 4 days · 13 km away
- 11,728 haMadonie San Mauro CastelverdeAugust 2021 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 1,510 haSan Mauro CastelverdeJuly 2017 · 2 days · 28 km away
- 1,434 haNicosiaAugust 2016 · 3 days · 31 km away
- 2,005 haSanta Domenica VittoriaJuly 2021 · 4 days · 35 km away
- 1,157 haNasoOctober 2020 · 1 day · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cesarò fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 30 July 2021 and 31 July 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 461 hectares (4.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Troina (201 ha, 1.2 %); Cerami (170 ha, 1.8 %); Cesarò (91 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.2 km of Troina. 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 25 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.