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Dedoplis Tskaro fire, 19 August 2023 Dedoplis Tskaro

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2023, 10:45 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2023 in Dedoplis Tskaro, Georgia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 324 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 164th largest in Kakheti since 2016 (of 201 with a page). Number 13 in Georgia in 2023, of 13.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.3 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
324ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
19 Aug 2023 – 20 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2023
Heat detections
14
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
86MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1920

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
23km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 50 ha in 2016, 117 ha in 2017, 94 ha in 2018, 192 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 288 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dedoplis Tskaro where it started
    324 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
19 Aug 29.2 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Aug 30.1 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Aug after 30.5 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
22 Aug after 31.1 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Aug after 32.1 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
24 Aug after 32.0 °C 38 % 20 km/h 2.5 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2023
After · 27 Aug 2023

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 19 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak14 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1027 µg/m³
Optical depth0.35
17181920212223
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 · 14Every 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 Georgia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dedoplis Tskaro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2023 and 20 August 2023: 2 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 324 hectares (3.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dedoplis Tskaro (324 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 23 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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
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.

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.