How long did the Florina fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 18 December 2016 and 20 December 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 498 hectares (5.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Florina (500 ha, 0.6 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 34.0 km of Florina. 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 2.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 1, class Very low.

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.

EL · Greece · 2016-12-18 → 2016-12-20

Florina fire, December 2016 Δημοτική Ενότητα Φλώρινας · Florina

Out · last detection 20 Dec 2016, 01:39 UTC

The fire started on 18 December 2016 in Florina, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 498 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

Number 14 in Greece in 2016, of 33.

The power measured by the satellite is low (1.2 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: 498ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 18 Dec 2016 – 20 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 18 Dec; 2016
Heat detections: 2; in a single hotspot: 1 MW
Danger at start: 1; Very low · FWI index
Energy released: 146MW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Dec 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Dec20 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

181920

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

The weather it burned in

3°high

26km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 27 Dec.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Florina Δημοτική Ενότητα Φλώρινας 17,086 inhabitants · 34.0 km from the town where it started

500 ha reached on 19 Dec

0.6 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland57 %
Other natural land29 %
Broadleaved forest9.7 %
Mixed forest4.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 97 %

LIC KORYFES OROUS VORA GR1240001
ZEPA OROS VORAS GR1240008

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	Rain	Danger (FWI)
18 Dec	1.8 °C	27 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
19 Dec	2.3 °C	24 %	12 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
20 Dec	2.6 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
21 Dec after	0.4 °C	42 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
22 Dec after	0.6 °C	25 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
23 Dec after	2.5 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
24 Dec after	2.1 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
25 Dec after	1.1 °C	47 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
26 Dec after	3.9 °C	49 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
27 Dec after	2.8 °C	65 %	36 km/h	1.3 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Dec 2016

After · 27 Dec 2016

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 20 December 2016 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak46 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM1050 µg/m³

WHO 15

1617181920212223

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 · 2Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Florina fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 18 December 2016 and 20 December 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 498 hectares (5.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Florina (500 ha, 0.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 34.0 km of Florina. 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 2.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 1, class Very low.
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

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?

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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.

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.

Where it burned