Ghisoni fire, 27 October 2017 Ghisoni, Palneca
The fire started on 27 October 2017 in Ghisoni, France, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 215 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Haute-Corse since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 14 in France in 2017, of 27.
- Burnt area
- 215ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 27 Oct 2017 – 30 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 27 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 32
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 294MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.0 mm on 5 Nov.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
214 ha reached on 27 Oct1.7 %
-
Palneca 133 inhabitants · 5.6 km from the town1 ha0.0 %
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
- Broadleaved forest48 %
- Coniferous forest27 %
- Mixed forest15 %
- Other natural land9.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 90 %
- ZEPA Forêts Territoriales de Corse FR9410113
- LIC Massif du Renoso FR9400611
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.
Official record
According to BDIFF, a fire of 526 ha was recorded in Ghisoni on 26 October 2017 (the satellite measured 215 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date. The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Ghisoni 26 October 2017 · 15:37 526 ha · cause: arson
BDIFF (Base de Données sur les Incendies de Forêts en France). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct | 15.6 °C | 50 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 28 Oct | 13.2 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 29 Oct | 12.8 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 30 Oct | 11.9 °C | 58 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 31 Oct after | 11.3 °C | 62 % | 24 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 6 |
| 1 Nov after | 12.3 °C | 53 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 2 Nov after | 12.8 °C | 46 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 3 Nov after | 13.6 °C | 53 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 4 Nov after | 11.9 °C | 76 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 5 Nov after | 10.2 °C | 71 % | 60 km/h | 10.0 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 27 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 32Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ghisoni fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 27 October 2017 and 30 October 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 215 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ghisoni (214 ha, 1.7 %); Palneca (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.6 km of Palneca. 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 15.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of France (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 · 18
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
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 ADM5 (Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0). 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.