Kukës fire, August 2024 Kukës
The fire started on 15 August 2024 in Kukës, Albania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,111 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2th largest in Kukës since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 11 in Albania in 2024, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 1,111ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 15 Aug 2024 – 18 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 101
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 980MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 30 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Kukës where it started1,112 ha reached on 15 Aug1.2 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland27 %
- Other natural land26 %
- Mixed forest22 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub13 %
- Broadleaved forest8.0 %
- Coniferous forest4.2 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 31.7 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Aug | 31.4 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Aug | 28.6 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Aug | 28.2 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 19 Aug after | 23.6 °C | 50 % | 35 km/h | 3.1 mm | Very low 5 |
| 20 Aug after | 23.5 °C | 46 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 21 Aug after | 24.1 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 22 Aug after | 24.9 °C | 39 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 23 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 24 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Aug after | 26.1 °C | 23 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Aug after | 25.1 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Aug after | 25.0 °C | 36 % | 45 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Aug after | 22.7 °C | 44 % | 50 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 20 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 101Every 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 Kukës fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2024 and 18 August 2024: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,111 hectares (11.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kukës (1,112 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Albania (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: 128 · 112
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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic). 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.