Skip to content
worldfires
EL · Greece · →

Chios fire, August 2016 Δημοτική Ενότητα ΧΙΟΥ · Chios

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2016, 10:56 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2016 in Chios, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 466 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in North Aegean since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 15 in Greece in 2016, of 33.

Burnt area
466ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
26 Aug 2016 – 26 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2016
Heat detections
26
in a single hotspot: 178 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
311MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

26

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
58km/h · peak gust
48%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Chios Δημοτική Ενότητα ΧΙΟΥ 24,964 inhabitants where it started
    467 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.6 %

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 land64 %
  • Agricultural areas18 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland13 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub5.4 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 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)
26 Aug 27.6 °C 48 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug after 26.5 °C 50 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug after 25.7 °C 58 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Aug after 25.1 °C 59 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Aug after 25.6 °C 59 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Aug after 28.1 °C 51 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Sept after 26.8 °C 43 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept after 25.0 °C 55 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Sept after 26.3 °C 47 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Sept after 26.0 °C 49 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept after 24.9 °C 58 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2016
After · 2 Sept 2016

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 23 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1042 µg/m³
23242526272829
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 · 26Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chios fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 26 August 2016 and 26 August 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 466 hectares (4.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chios (467 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199

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 · 199.

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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.