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Kreminna fire, 16 June 2022 Кремінський район · Kreminna

Out · last detection 17 Jun 2022, 23:43 UTC

The fire started on 16 June 2022 in Kreminna, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 221 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 399th largest in Luhansk Oblast since 2016 (of 909 with a page). Number 231 in Ukraine in 2022, of 531.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
221ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
7days
16 Jun 2022 – 22 Jun 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Jun
2022
Heat detections
3
in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
6MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jun22 Jun
17 Jun 2022

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jun 2022 · 2 MW · 1 17 Jun 2022 · 10 MW · 2
16 Jun 17 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
36km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 25 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Kreminna Кремінський район 41,084 inhabitants · 5.4 km from the centre where it started
    220 ha reached on 16 Jun
    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

  • Mixed forest80 %
  • Other natural land16 %
  • Coniferous forest4.0 %

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)
16 Jun 24.0 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
17 Jun 25.6 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
18 Jun 26.3 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Jun 27.1 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Jun 29.8 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jun 31.3 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Jun 23.8 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 21
23 Jun after 22.3 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Jun after 24.8 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
25 Jun after 23.8 °C 57 % 27 km/h 1.2 mm High 21

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 3.8, a minimum humidity of 32% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 3.8
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Oleksandrivka fire, March 2022
133 ha 1 day FWI 3.4 Min. humidity 30 % 85 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 2 Apr.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
194 ha
median area
4 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 28 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (221 ha against a median of 194 ha) and lasted 7 days, against 2 days.

In 14 of 28, 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 4.3 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

1.2 mmfirst rain
25 Jun3 days after it ended
36km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Jun, and on 25 Jun 1.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 28, with a median of 4.3 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 2016.
  • 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 · 9 Jun 2022
After · 29 Jun 2022

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 21 June 2022 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1030 µg/m³
14 Jun16 Jun18 Jun20 Jun22 Jun
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 · 3Every 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 Kreminna fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 June 2022 to 22 June 2022 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 June 2022 to 19 June 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 221 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kreminna (220 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Kreminna and came within 5.4 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 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 28. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 194 ha; 4 % went past 1,000 ha. In 14 of 28, 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 4.3 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 June 2022 to 19 June 2022. 3 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.