Grevena fire, August 2021 δημοτική ενότητα Γρεβενών · Grevena
The fire started on 3 August 2021 in Grevena, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,125 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 11 in Greece in 2021, of 45.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.4 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
- 1,125ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 3 Aug 2021 – 7 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 3 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 10
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 49MW
- 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 15 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
-
1,126 ha reached on 3 Aug0.6 %
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
- Broadleaved forest79 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
- Agricultural areas3.0 %
- Other land cover1.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug | 40.6 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 4 Aug | 39.2 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 5 Aug | 40.6 °C | 8 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 6 Aug | 34.0 °C | 19 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 7 Aug | 34.3 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Aug after | 36.8 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 9 Aug after | 40.3 °C | 13 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 10 Aug after | 41.1 °C | 11 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 11 Aug after | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 12 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Aug after | 33.6 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Aug after | 35.3 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 22 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 6 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily 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 · 10Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Grevena fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 3 August 2021 and 7 August 2021: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,125 hectares (11.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Grevena (1,126 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, class Extreme.
- 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
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 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.