Isili fire, July 2016 Nurri, Isili, Serri
The fire started on 20 July 2016 in Isili, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,533 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Sud Sardegna since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 4 in Italy in 2016, of 78.
- Burnt area
- 1,533ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 20 Jul 2016 – 21 Jul 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Jul
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 32
- in a single hotspot: 105 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 697MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.4 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
-
Nurri 2,025 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town1,012 ha reached on 20 Jul14 %
-
437 ha reached on 20 Jul6.4 %
-
Serri 613 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town85 ha reached on 20 Jul4.5 %
-
Villanova Tulo 1,004 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town1 ha0.0 %
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
- Agricultural areas73 %
- Other natural land25 %
- Broadleaved forest1.6 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to CFVA Sardegna, this fire started on 20 July 2016 and burned 1,603 ha (the satellite measured 1,533 ha).
- Nurri M. Curadori 20 July 2016 1,603 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jul | 32.2 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Jul | 32.2 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 21 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Jul after | 30.5 °C | 35 % | 46 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Jul after | 24.8 °C | 50 % | 39 km/h | 7.4 mm | Low 5 |
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.
Detections table · 32Every 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 Isili fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 20 July 2016 and 21 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 1,533 hectares (15.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Nurri (1,012 ha, 14 %); Isili (437 ha, 6.4 %); Serri (85 ha, 4.5 %); Villanova Tulo (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.9 km of Nurri. 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 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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.