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Erymanthos fire, August 2020 Ερυμάνθου · Erymanthos, Olympia

Out · last measured on 26 Aug 2020

The fire started on 26 August 2020 in Erymanthos, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 195 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Western Greece since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 13 in Greece in 2020, of 22.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Erymanthos · 2024Pyrgos · 2021Pyrgos · 2025West Achaea · 2022

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
195ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
26 Aug 2020 – 26 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2020
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

30°high
41km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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. Erymanthos Ερυμάνθου where it started
    100 ha
    0.2 %
  2. Olympia Αρχαίας Ολυμπίας
    95 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

  • Other natural land61 %
  • Agricultural areas23 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub16 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
26 Aug 30.5 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Aug after 30.3 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Aug after 32.7 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Aug after 32.2 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug after 30.4 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Aug after 33.9 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Sept after 31.2 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept after 28.9 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept after 29.1 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Sept after 29.9 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Sept after 28.8 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2020
After · 2 Sept 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Erymanthos fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 26 August 2020 and 26 August 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 195 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Erymanthos (100 ha, 0.2 %); Olympia (95 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199 · 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

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 · 199.

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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.