Custonaci fire, September 2022 Custonaci, San Vito Lo Capo
The fire started on 4 September 2022 in Custonaci, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 172 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 47th largest in Trapani since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 93 in Italy in 2022, of 161.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 172ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 4 Sept 2022 – 4 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 12
- in a single hotspot: 20 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 76MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
4 Sept 2022 · 76 MW · 12
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 168 ha in 2017, 50 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 168 ha that had burned before.
- 168 ha Custonaci fire, July 2017 3,195 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 34 ha San Vito Lo Capo fire, August 2020 3,057 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Custonaci fire, July 2020 228 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
144 ha reached on 4 Sept2.0 %
-
San Vito Lo Capo 4,814 inhabitants · 7.7 km from the centre28 ha reached on 4 Sept0.5 %
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
- Other natural land99 %
- Artificial surfaces0.6 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Capo San Vito, Monte Monaco, Zingaro, Faraglioni Scopello, Monte Sparacio ITA010017
- ZEPA Monte Cofano, Capo San Vito e Monte Sparagio ITA010029
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Sept | 32.9 °C | 38 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 55 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 50 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 51 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 14 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 43 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 5 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 12Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,542 haCustonaci20 July 2025 · 7 days · 1 km away
- 3,195 haCustonaciJuly 2017 · 2 days · 2 km away
- 3,057 haSan Vito Lo CapoAugust 2020 · 3 days · 4 km away
- 1,100 haSan Vito Lo CapoJuly 2023 · 1 day · 8 km away
- 1,551 haBuseto PalizzoloAugust 2022 · 2 days · 12 km away
- 1,226 haSalemiJune 2026 · 1 day · 21 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Custonaci fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 4 September 2022 and 4 September 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 172 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Custonaci (144 ha, 2.0 %); San Vito Lo Capo (28 ha, 0.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Custonaci and came within 6.2 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 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 40 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.
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.
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. 12 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.