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Lutuhyne fire, 19 August 2024 Лутугинський район · Lutuhyne

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2024, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2024 in Lutuhyne, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,048 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 68th largest in Luhansk Oblast since 2016 (of 909 with a page). Number 114 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bilovodsk · 2025Bilovodsk · 2025Sorokyne · 2024Antratsyt · 2024

Burnt area
1,048ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
19 Aug 2024 – 22 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2024
Heat detections
21
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
255MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug22 Aug
22 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

19 Aug 2024 · 1 MW · 1 22 Aug 2024 · 509 MW · 20
19 Aug 22 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
45km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.7% of the area of London (10 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Lutuhyne Лутугинський район 65,908 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the centre where it started
    1,047 ha reached on 19 Aug
    1.0 %

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

  • Other natural land56 %
  • Agricultural areas39 %
  • Mixed forest3.2 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.8 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.71 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.71 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Very dry air: 2.5 % of the area in Ukraine

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
19 Aug 33.2 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 34.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Aug 35.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Aug 35.9 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Aug after 31.7 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.8 mm Very high 48
24 Aug after 33.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 38
25 Aug after 32.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 32.4 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Aug after 32.0 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Aug after 32.7 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Aug after 31.0 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 49
30 Aug after 31.2 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Aug after 33.0 °C 18 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Sept after 30.2 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 41.6, a minimum humidity of 11% and 13 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 42.

FWI at the start 41.6
Minimum humidity 11 %
Days without rain 13
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bilovodsk fire, July 2025
153 ha 1 day FWI 43.7 Min. humidity 11 % 114 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 13 Jul.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
174 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 33 of 42 had it)

It was 6.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 4 days, against 3 days.

None of its 42 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 42, 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 2.3 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 33 of 42, with a median of 2.3 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 · 12 Aug 2024
After · 29 Aug 2024

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 17 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1027 µg/m³
Optical depth0.33
17 Aug19 Aug21 Aug23 Aug25 Aug
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 · 21Every 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 Lutuhyne fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 August 2024 to 22 August 2024 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2024 to 22 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,048 hectares (10.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lutuhyne (1,047 ha, 1.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Lutuhyne and came within 2.8 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 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
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: 42. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 174 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 42 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 42, 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 2.3 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 22 August 2024 to 22 August 2024. 21 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.