How long did the Gratteri fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 21 September 2023 and 23 September 2023: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,823 hectares (28.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gratteri (2,044 ha, 53 %); Cefalù (538 ha, 8.1 %); Lascari (149 ha, 15 %); Collesano (96 ha, 0.9 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Gratteri. 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 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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 · 2023-09-21 → 2023-09-23

Gratteri fire, September 2023 Gratteri, Cefalù, Lascari

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2023, 02:06 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2023 in Gratteri, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,823 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Palermo since 2016 (of 178 with a page). Number 4 in Italy in 2023, of 207.

Burnt area: 2,823ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 21 Sept 2023 – 23 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit: 4; municipalities
Started on: 21 Sept; 2023
Heat detections: 114; in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start: 37; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Sept 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2223

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

67km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,295 ha in 2016, 72 ha in 2022.

2,295 ha Cefalù fire, June 2016 3,436 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Gratteri 859 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town where it started

2,044 ha reached on 22 Sept

53 %
Cefalù 13,881 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the town

538 ha reached on 22 Sept

8.1 %
Lascari 3,677 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town

149 ha reached on 22 Sept

15 %
Collesano 3,650 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town

96 ha reached on 22 Sept

0.9 %

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

Agricultural areas48 %
Broadleaved forest23 %
Sclerophyllous scrub9.1 %
Other natural land8.2 %
Scrub and transitional woodland7.0 %
Coniferous forest3.0 %
Artificial surfaces1.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 38 %

LIC Complesso Pizzo Dipilo e Querceti su calcare ITA020017
ZEPA Parco delle Madonie ITA020050

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)
21 Sept	33.1 °C	25 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
22 Sept	32.9 °C	36 %	67 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
23 Sept	29.6 °C	54 %	52 km/h	3.8 mm	Low 7
24 Sept after	24.5 °C	46 %	58 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 14
25 Sept after	23.5 °C	66 %	37 km/h	3.0 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 Sept 2023

After · 30 Sept 2023

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 22 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak78 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1051 µg/m³

Optical depth0.82

WHO 15

1920212223242526

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 · 114Every 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 Gratteri fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 21 September 2023 and 23 September 2023: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,823 hectares (28.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gratteri (2,044 ha, 53 %); Cefalù (538 ha, 8.1 %); Lascari (149 ha, 15 %); Collesano (96 ha, 0.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Gratteri. 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 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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