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UA · Ukraine · –

Holo Prystan fire, 9 September 2023 Скадовський район · Holo Prystan, Oleshky

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2023, 23:51 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2023 in Holo Prystan, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 273 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 438th largest in Kherson Oblast since 2016 (of 1102 with a page). Number 162 in Ukraine in 2023, of 491.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.0 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
273ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
9 Sept 2023 – 14 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Sept
2023
Heat detections
39
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
47MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept14 Sept
13 Sept 2023

How it evolved, day by day

9 Sept 2023 · 12 MW · 4 10 Sept 2023 · 121 MW · 15 11 Sept 2023 · 68 MW · 7 12 Sept 2023 · 16 MW · 5 13 Sept 2023 · 17 MW · 8
9 Sept 10 Sept 11 Sept 12 Sept 13 Sept

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

27°high
46km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 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. Holo Prystan Скадовський район 127,000 inhabitants · 24.4 km from the centre where it started
    188 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.1 %
  2. Oleshky Олешківський район 70,367 inhabitants · 20.9 km from the centre
    85 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.0 %

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

  • Mixed forest90 %
  • Other natural land7.4 %
  • Coniferous forest2.2 %

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 28 % of the area in Ukraine

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
9 Sept 26.1 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept 22.1 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept 24.6 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Sept 27.0 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Sept 27.4 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Sept 26.2 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 40
15 Sept after 25.9 °C 52 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 43
16 Sept after 24.5 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept after 26.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 26.6 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept after 27.1 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 27.8 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Sept after 28.2 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept after 27.9 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Sept after 28.6 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Sept after 29.8 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 51.6, a minimum humidity of 27% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2022: 21.

FWI at the start 51.6
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 11
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Oleshky fire, August 2024
257 ha 1 day FWI 52.3 Min. humidity 27 % 10 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 12.4 mm on 4 Aug.

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
224 ha
median area
10 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 21 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (273 ha against a median of 224 ha) and lasted 6 days, against 3 days.

In 5 of 21, 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 2.8 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
46km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 21, with a median of 2.8 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 2022.
  • 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 · 2 Sept 2023
After · 21 Sept 2023

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 12 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1022 µg/m³
Optical depth0.30
7 Sept9 Sept11 Sept13 Sept15 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)

Detections table · 39Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Holo Prystan fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 September 2023 to 14 September 2023 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 September 2023 to 12 September 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 273 hectares (2.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Holo Prystan (188 ha, 0.1 %); Oleshky (85 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 20.9 km of the centre of Oleshky, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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 2022 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 21. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 224 ha; 10 % went past 1,000 ha. In 5 of 21, 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 2.8 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 9 September 2023 to 12 September 2023. 39 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.