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Hlukhiv fire, 25 September 2024 Глухів · Hlukhiv

Out · last measured on 29 Sept 2024

The fire started on 25 September 2024 in Hlukhiv, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 156 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 74th largest in Sumy Oblast since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 1276 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
156ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
25 Sept 2024 – 29 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
25 Sept
2024
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

28°high
56km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 5 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Hlukhiv Глухів 31,789 inhabitants · 11.8 km from the centre where it started
    156 ha
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Agricultural areas49 %
  • Other natural land30 %
  • Mixed forest21 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
25 Sept 26.0 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Sept 22.1 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept 23.7 °C 48 % 56 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 38
28 Sept 28.1 °C 32 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Sept 23.5 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept after 18.7 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Oct after 22.9 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Oct after 23.8 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Oct after 24.3 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Oct after 20.9 °C 53 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
5 Oct after 18.4 °C 81 % 24 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 32.0, a minimum humidity of 29% and 42 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2020: 28.

FWI at the start 32.0
Minimum humidity 29 %
Days without rain 42
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Hlukhiv fire, September 2024
250 ha 7 days FWI 34.2 Min. humidity 28 % 29 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
220 ha
median area
11 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 1 of 28 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (156 ha against a median of 220 ha) and lasted 5 days, against 4 days.

In 27 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

4.7 mmfirst rain
5 Oct6 days after it ended
56km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 29 Sept, and on 5 Oct 4.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 1 of 28, with a median of 1.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2020.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Sept 2024
After · 6 Oct 2024

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 26 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak21 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1040 µg/m³
Optical depth0.21
23 Sept25 Sept27 Sept
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hlukhiv fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 September 2024 to 29 September 2024 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 September 2024 to 25 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 156 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hlukhiv (156 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Hlukhiv and came within 11.8 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2020 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 28. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 220 ha; 11 % went past 1,000 ha. In 27 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.0 mm.

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: 101 · 112 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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?

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 101 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 September 2024 to 25 September 2024. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.