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UA · Ukraine ·

Khoroshiv fire, 29 March 2020 Хорошівський район · Khoroshiv

Out · last measured on 29 Mar 2020

The fire started on 29 March 2020 in Khoroshiv, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 114 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 164th largest in Zhytomyr Oblast since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 127 in Ukraine in 2020, of 132.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
114ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
29 Mar 2020 – 29 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Mar
2020
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

18°high
24km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 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. Khoroshiv Хорошівський район 34,553 inhabitants · 28.0 km from the centre where it started
    114 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Other natural land55 %
  • Mixed forest27 %
  • Broadleaved forest11 %
  • Agricultural areas8.0 %

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)
29 Mar 17.9 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
30 Mar after 6.9 °C 62 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
31 Mar after 5.1 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Apr after 6.6 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Apr after 12.2 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
3 Apr after 15.2 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Apr after 12.2 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Apr after 11.5 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Apr after 16.7 °C 8 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
7 Apr after 19.0 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Apr after 20.0 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 13.8, a minimum humidity of 22% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2020: 16.

FWI at the start 13.8
Minimum humidity 22 %
Days without rain 6
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Rokytne fire, March 2025
296 ha 1 day FWI 13.8 Min. humidity 22 % 137 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.8 mm on 12 Mar.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
304 ha
median area
12 %
went past 1,000 ha
7.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 16 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 114 ha against a median of 304 ha. It lasted 1 day, against 2 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 7.0 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
24km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 29 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 16, with a median of 7.0 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 2020.
  • 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 · 22 Mar 2020
After · 5 Apr 2020

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 29 March 2020 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1038 µg/m³
27 Mar29 Mar31 Mar
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Khoroshiv fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 29 March 2020 and 29 March 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 114 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Khoroshiv (114 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Khoroshiv and came within 28.0 km of its centre. 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 17.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
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 2020 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 16. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 304 ha; 12 % went past 1,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 7.0 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.