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Holo Prystan fire, 20 May 2024 Скадовський район · Ukraine

Out · last detection 20 May 2024, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 20 May 2024 in Holo Prystan, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 163 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 716th largest in Kherson Oblast since 2016 (of 1102 with a page). Number 1232 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

The power measured by the satellite is low (4.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ochakiv · 2022Bilozerka · 2026Holo Prystan · 2022Holo Prystan · 2025

Burnt area
163ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
20 May 2024 – 20 May 2024
Municipalities hit
0
districts
Started on
20 May
2024
Heat detections
2
in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Average daily power
9MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 May20 May

How it evolved, day by day

20 May 2024 · 9 MW · 2

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

The weather it burned in

22°high
28km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 26 May.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 34 ha in 2022, 4 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 36 ha that had burned before.

What burned

  • Mixed forest78 %
  • Other natural land22 %

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)
20 May 22.5 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 May after 25.2 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 May after 26.4 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 May after 27.5 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 May after 28.3 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 51
25 May after 25.4 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 May after 22.5 °C 26 % 54 km/h 1.5 mm Extreme 57

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 22.7, a minimum humidity of 40% and 5 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2022: 45.

FWI at the start 22.7
Minimum humidity 40 %
Days without rain 5
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Ochakiv fire, July 2022
173 ha 1 day FWI 24.0 Min. humidity 40 % 19 km away, in 2022

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

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
199 ha
median area
13 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 41 of 45 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (163 ha against a median of 199 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 4 days.

In 4 of 45, 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 2.2 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

1.5 mmfirst rain
26 May6 days after it ended
28km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 May, and on 26 May 1.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 41 of 45, with a median of 2.2 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 · 13 May 2024
After · 27 May 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 22 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1014 µg/m³
Optical depth0.25
18 May20 May22 May
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 · 2Every 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?
Copernicus dates it between 20 May 2024 and 20 May 2024: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 163 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 22.5 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class 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 2022 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 45. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 199 ha; 13 % went past 1,000 ha. In 4 of 45, 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 2.2 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2 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.