How long did the Kharkiv fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2024 and 22 August 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 528 hectares (5.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kharkiv (528 ha, 0.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 28.1 km of Kharkiv. 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 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 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.

UA · Ukraine · 2024-08-21 → 2024-08-22

Kharkiv fire, 21 August 2024 Харківський район · Kharkiv

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2024, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 528 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Kharkiv Oblast since 2016 (of 558 with a page). Number 295 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

Burnt area: 528ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 21 Aug 2024 – 22 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 21 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 24; in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start: 43; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 372MW; sum of detected power

Play back 22 Aug 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2122

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

42km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 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

Kharkiv Харківський район 178,602 inhabitants · 28.1 km from the town where it started

528 ha reached on 21 Aug

0.4 %

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 areas72 %
Other natural land15 %
Mixed forest12 %

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)
21 Aug	35.4 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
22 Aug	35.9 °C	14 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
23 Aug after	32.4 °C	25 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41
24 Aug after	32.8 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
25 Aug after	34.3 °C	26 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
26 Aug after	34.2 °C	23 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 Aug after	31.5 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
28 Aug after	32.3 °C	24 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
29 Aug after	32.3 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
30 Aug after	32.0 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
31 Aug after	32.8 °C	17 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
1 Sept after	30.8 °C	20 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 Aug 2024

After · 29 Aug 2024

Before After

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 25 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak13 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1024 µg/m³

Optical depth0.31

19202122232425

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 · 24Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kharkiv fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2024 and 22 August 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 528 hectares (5.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kharkiv (528 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 28.1 km of Kharkiv. 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 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 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.

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

ДСНС · State Emergency Service ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

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.

Where it burned