Dedoplis Tskaro fire, 17 August 2022 Dedoplis Tskaro
The fire started on 17 August 2022 in Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 496 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 85th largest in Kakheti since 2016 (of 201 with a page). Number 10 in Georgia in 2022, of 20.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.3 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
- 496ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 17 Aug 2022 – 20 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 39MW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 80 ha in 2016, 54 ha in 2017, 352 ha in 2018, 118 ha in 2019, 31 ha in 2020, 150 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 430 ha that had burned before.
- 277 ha Dedoplis Tskaro fire, July 2018 1,392 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 130 ha Dedoplis Tskaro fire, June 2021 491 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 118 ha Dedoplis Tskaro fire, July 2019 893 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 80 ha Dedoplis Tskaro fire, August 2016 1,392 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 75 ha Dedoplis Tskaro fire, July 2018 697 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 54 ha Dedoplis Tskaro fire, July 2017 773 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 20 ha Dedoplis Tskaro fire, July 2021 301 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dedoplis Tskaro where it started497 ha reached on 17 Aug0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug | 35.9 °C | 20 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Aug | 34.1 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Aug | 32.5 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Aug | 33.6 °C | 19 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Aug after | 30.9 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 23 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
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 21 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 15 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 · 6Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,749 haDedoplis Tskaro26 July 2025 · 4 days · 1 km away
- 14,812 haDedoplis Tskaro4 August 2026 · 9 days · 3 km away
- 3,290 haSighnaghi5 July 2020 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 1,972 haDedoplis Tskaro3 August 2019 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 2,722 haSighnaghi2 July 2019 · 7 days · 23 km away
- 2,028 haSighnaghi31 July 2026 · 6 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dedoplis Tskaro fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2022 and 20 August 2022: 4 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 496 hectares (5.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dedoplis Tskaro (497 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Georgia (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
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 comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.