Grottaferrata fire, August 2026 Grottaferrata, Monte Compatri, Monte Porzio Catone
The fire started on 11 August 2026 in Grottaferrata, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 141 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Roma since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 155 in Italy in 2026, of 231.
- Burnt area
- 141ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 11 Aug 2026 – 11 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 2
- in a single hotspot: 13 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 12 Aug.
This area had burned before
60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39 ha in 2021, 67 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 85 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
99 ha reached on 16 Aug5.4 %
-
24 ha1.0 %
-
Monte Porzio Catone 8,581 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town18 ha2.0 %
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
- Other natural land88 %
- Agricultural areas9.7 %
- Broadleaved forest2.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 36.5 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Aug after | 36.2 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 32 |
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 13 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 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 · 2Every 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 Grottaferrata fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 11 August 2026 and 11 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 141 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Grottaferrata (99 ha, 5.4 %); Monte Compatri (24 ha, 1.0 %); Monte Porzio Catone (18 ha, 2.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.3 km of Monte Porzio Catone. 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 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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
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 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.