Lezhë fire, 24 July 2024 Shkodër, Lezhë
The fire started on 24 July 2024 in Lezhë, Albania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 4,051 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Lezhë since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 2 in Albania in 2024, of 70.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.0 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
- 4,051ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 24 Jul 2024 – 29 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 105MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 859 ha in 2016, 414 ha in 2017, 173 ha in 2019, 3,145 ha in 2020, 669 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,447 ha that had burned before.
- 2,757 ha Shkodër fire, July 2020 3,375 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 845 ha Shkodër fire, August 2016 867 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 418 ha Shkodër fire, August 2022 438 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 307 ha Shkodër fire, July 2020 308 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 264 ha Lezhë fire, August 2017 266 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 245 ha Shkodër fire, August 2022 255 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 149 ha Shkodër fire, July 2017 167 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 101 ha Shkodër fire, September 2019 101 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,798 ha reached on 29 Jul1.9 %
-
Lezhë where it started1,246 ha reached on 29 Jul2.5 %
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 land50 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub31 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland7.8 %
- Agricultural areas0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jul | 32.2 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 1.9 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 25 Jul | 31.7 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Jul | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Jul | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Jul | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Jul | 36.5 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Jul after | 33.4 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Jul after | 32.9 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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 29 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 11 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 · 79Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,375 haShkodër29 July 2020 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 1,518 haShkodër4 August 2024 · 5 days · 28 km away
- 2,853 haBar Municipality20 August 2017 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 2,498 haPukë12 August 2021 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 1,756 haPukë6 September 2026 · 6 days · 34 km away
- 4,513 haPukëAugust 2026 · 1 day · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lezhë fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 July 2024 and 29 July 2024: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 4,051 hectares (40.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Shkodër (2,798 ha, 1.9 %); Lezhë (1,246 ha, 2.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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.