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Iglesias fire, July 2016 Iglesias

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2016, 01:03 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2016 in Iglesias, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 157 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 23th largest in Sud Sardegna since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 52 in Italy in 2016, of 78.

Burnt area
157ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
14 Jul 2016 – 15 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Jul
2016
Heat detections
8
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
143MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul15 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1415

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
69km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 24 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Iglesias 25,093 inhabitants · 7.9 km from the town where it started
    158 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.8 %

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 land82 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub18 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to CFVA Sardegna, this fire started on 14 July 2016 and burned 178 ha (the satellite measured 157 ha).

Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale: perimetri delle aree percorse dal fuoco (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
14 Jul 24.5 °C 37 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Jul 25.5 °C 37 % 69 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jul after 27.5 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Jul after 27.8 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jul after 30.1 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jul after 31.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jul after 32.3 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jul after 32.7 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Jul after 34.6 °C 20 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
23 Jul after 29.8 °C 47 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jul after 25.9 °C 58 % 52 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2016
After · 22 Jul 2016

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 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1048 µg/m³
12131415161718
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 · 8Every 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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Iglesias fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 14 July 2016 and 15 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 157 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Iglesias (158 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.9 km of Iglesias. 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 25.5 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 69 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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
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 112 · 1515.

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.