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Epicho fire, September 2020 Επιχό/Τζιχανγκίρ · Kythrea, Epicho, Kalyvakia

Out · last measured on 24 Sept 2020

The fire started on 24 September 2020 in Epicho, Cyprus, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 304 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

Number 4 in Cyprus in 2020, of 8.

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
304ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
24 Sept 2020 – 24 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
24 Sept
2020
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
26km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Kythrea
    214 ha
    6.5 %
  2. Epicho Επιχό/Τζιχανγκίρ 704 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town where it started
    84 ha
    6.6 %
  3. Kalyvakia Καλυβάκια/Καλαβάτς 281 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    7 ha
    0.7 %
  4. Beïkioï
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub100 %

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)
24 Sept 32.6 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Sept after 31.2 °C 46 % 33 km/h 3.1 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Sept 2020
After · 1 Oct 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Cyprus ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Epicho fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 24 September 2020 and 24 September 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 304 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Kythrea (214 ha, 6.5 %); Epicho (84 ha, 6.6 %); Kalyvakia (7 ha, 0.7 %); Beïkioï (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Kalyvakia. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cyprus (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 · 1407

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 · 1407.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported). 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.