Laterza fire, July 2026 Laterza, Gioia del Colle
The fire started on 3 July 2026 in Laterza, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 159 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
Number 141 in Italy in 2026, of 231.
- Burnt area
- 159ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 3 Jul 2026 – 3 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 3 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 1 MW
- Natura 2000
- 100%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 127 ha in 2021, 61 ha in 2023, 18 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 132 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
137 ha reached on 8 Jul0.9 %
-
Gioia del Colle 26,562 inhabitants · 15.7 km from the town23 ha0.1 %
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
- Other natural land83 %
- Agricultural areas9.6 %
- Coniferous forest7.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Murgia Alta IT9120007
Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 10 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 11 Jul after | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Jul after | 34.2 °C | 25 % | 20 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Jul after | 31.5 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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 1 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 1Every 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 Laterza fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 3 July 2026 and 3 July 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 159 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Laterza (137 ha, 0.9 %); Gioia del Colle (23 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.9 km of Laterza. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- 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.