Lesbos fire, 4 November 2022 Μυτιλήνης · Lesbos
The fire started on 4 November 2022 in Lesbos, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 147 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 19 in Greece in 2022, of 29.
The power measured by the satellite is low (4.4 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
- 147ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 4 Nov 2022 – 5 Nov 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 Nov
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 7
- in a single hotspot: 4 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 13MW
- 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 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 6 Nov.
This area had burned before
11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16 ha in 2020.
What happened to each town
-
147 ha reached on 2 Nov0.1 %
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 land100 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC LESVOS: DYTIKI CHERSONISOS - APOLITHOMENO DASOS GR4110003
- ZEPA NOTIODYTIKI CHERSONISOS, APOLITHOMENO DASOS LESVOU GR4110010
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Nov | 17.6 °C | 59 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 5 Nov | 18.8 °C | 61 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Nov after | 15.8 °C | 71 % | 53 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 6 |
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 4 November 2022 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 7Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 270 haLesbos Μυτιλήνης3 November 2019 · 1 day · 5 km away
- 110 haLesbos ΜυτιλήνηςNovember 2020 · 1 day · 5 km away
- 102 haLesbos Μυτιλήνης2 November 2019 · 2 days · 9 km away
- 140 haLesbos Μυτιλήνης5 November 2022 · 2 days · 11 km away
- 145 haLesbos ΜυτιλήνηςOctober 2020 · 2 days · 12 km away
- 2,607 haLesbos ΜυτιλήνηςJuly 2022 · 5 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lesbos fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 4 November 2022 and 5 November 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 147 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lesbos (147 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 18.8 °C, humidity dropped to 59 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199
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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.