How long did the Erice fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2021 and 26 July 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 394 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Erice (390 ha, 8.2 %); Valderice (4 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.8 km of Valderice. 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 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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.

IT · Italy · 2021-07-25 → 2021-07-26

Erice fire, July 2021 Erice, Valderice

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2021, 01:59 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2021 in Erice, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 394 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 20th largest in Trapani since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 67 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.6 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: 394ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 25 Jul 2021 – 26 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 25 Jul; 2021
Heat detections: 42; in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start: 40; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 455MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul26 Jul

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

33°high

54km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 172 ha in 2017.

172 ha Erice fire, June 2017 672 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Erice where it started

390 ha reached on 26 Jul

8.2 %
Valderice 11,480 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town

4 ha reached on 26 Jul

0.1 %

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 scrub73 %
Agricultural areas14 %
Coniferous forest9.7 %
Artificial surfaces2.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 86 %

ZEPA + LIC Monte San Giuliano ITA010010

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	Danger (FWI)
25 Jul	32.4 °C	25 %	54 km/h	Very high 40
26 Jul	32.7 °C	28 %	49 km/h	Very high 41
27 Jul after	32.6 °C	24 %	37 km/h	High 37
28 Jul after	34.0 °C	25 %	30 km/h	High 32
29 Jul after	35.5 °C	24 %	41 km/h	Very high 40
30 Jul after	34.2 °C	32 %	49 km/h	Very high 45
31 Jul after	35.9 °C	24 %	29 km/h	High 36
1 Aug after	38.0 °C	20 %	46 km/h	Very high 45
2 Aug after	32.4 °C	42 %	45 km/h	High 37
3 Aug after	35.7 °C	32 %	42 km/h	Very high 39
4 Aug after	35.6 °C	28 %	53 km/h	Very high 48
5 Aug after	31.8 °C	33 %	40 km/h	Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Jul 2021

After · 2 Aug 2021

Before After

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 29 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1034 µg/m³

WHO 15

23242526272829

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 · 42Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Erice fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2021 and 26 July 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 394 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Erice (390 ha, 8.2 %); Valderice (4 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.8 km of Valderice. 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 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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

Protezione Civile ↗
Carabinieri Forestali (1515) ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 · 1515.

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.

Where it burned