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Dubrovytsia fire, 21 October 2021 Дубровицький район · Dubrovytsia

Out · last measured on 21 Oct 2021

The fire started on 21 October 2021 in Dubrovytsia, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 114 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

This entry is probably an agricultural burn of stubble, meadow or peatland, not a wildfire. Before the war, stubble and meadows in Ukraine were burnt every spring and autumn, and the fire often got out of hand. This is our assumption, based on the time of year, ground with almost no woodland and the lack of news about this fire; it is not confirmed. That is why it is left out of the wildfire rankings.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Dubrovytsia · 2024Ovruch · 2024Dubrovytsia · 2021Dubrovytsia · 2025

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
114ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
21 Oct 2021 – 21 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Oct
2021
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

19°high
59km/h · peak gust
41%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 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. Dubrovytsia Дубровицький район 11.9 km from the centre where it started
    114 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Agricultural areas82 %
  • Other natural land16 %
  • Mixed forest2.6 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)

Started with Strong wind: 20 % of the area in Ukraine

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Oct 18.8 °C 41 % 59 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 18
22 Oct after 12.8 °C 41 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Oct after 8.5 °C 55 % 59 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 16
24 Oct after 6.8 °C 63 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
25 Oct after 10.7 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
26 Oct after 12.8 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
27 Oct after 11.8 °C 64 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
28 Oct after 13.7 °C 76 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
29 Oct after 15.9 °C 58 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
30 Oct after 16.3 °C 51 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
31 Oct after 14.1 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 18.3, a minimum humidity of 41% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2020: 72.

FWI at the start 18.3
Minimum humidity 41 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Dubrovytsia fire, September 2024
280 ha 7 days FWI 23.7 Min. humidity 40 % 39 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 25 Sept.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
183 ha
median area
11 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 58 of 72 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 114 ha against a median of 183 ha. It lasted 1 day, against 2 days.

In 14 of 72, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
59km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Oct, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 58 of 72, with a median of 3.1 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2020.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Oct 2021
After · 28 Oct 2021

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 20 October 2021 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1022 µg/m³
19 Oct21 Oct23 Oct
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dubrovytsia fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 21 October 2021 and 21 October 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 114 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dubrovytsia (114 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Dubrovytsia and came within 11.9 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 18.8 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2020 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 72. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 183 ha; 11 % went past 1,000 ha. In 14 of 72, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 mm.

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: 101 · 112 · 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.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 101 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.
  • Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.