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Makrakomi fire, August 2023 Μακρακώμη · Makrakomi

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2023, 12:32 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2023 in Makrakomi, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 424 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 29th largest in Central Greece since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 23 in Greece in 2023, of 34.

Burnt area
424ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
22 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Aug
2023
Heat detections
23
in a single hotspot: 207 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
752MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug25 Aug
25 Aug 2023

How it evolved, day by day

22 Aug 2023 · 2,206 MW · 19 23 Aug 2023 · 1 MW · 1 25 Aug 2023 · 50 MW · 3
22 Aug 23 Aug 25 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

35°high
67km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 26 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Makrakomi Μακρακώμη 6,478 inhabitants where it started
    425 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.5 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub55 %
  • Agricultural areas39 %
  • Other natural land6.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 2 %

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)

Started with Strong wind: 64 % of the area in Greece

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
22 Aug 34.8 °C 18 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Aug 33.5 °C 29 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug 33.9 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm High 33
25 Aug 33.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
26 Aug after 32.6 °C 32 % 47 km/h 1.4 mm High 24

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 50.7, a minimum humidity of 18% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.

FWI at the start 50.7
Minimum humidity 18 %
Days without rain 7
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

West Achaea fire, July 2022
818 ha 2 days FWI 50.5 Min. humidity 18 % 122 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.1 mm on 8 Jul.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
594 ha
median area
20 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 20 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (424 ha against a median of 594 ha) and lasted 4 days, against 2 days.

In 7 of 20, 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 3.1 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

1.4 mmfirst rain
26 Augthe day after it ended
67km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 25 Aug, and on 26 Aug 1.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 20, with a median of 3.1 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 · 15 Aug 2023
After · 1 Sept 2023

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 23 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1028 µg/m³
Optical depth0.58
20 Aug22 Aug24 Aug26 Aug28 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 · 23Every 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 Greece

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Makrakomi fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 22 August 2023 and 25 August 2023: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 424 hectares (4.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Makrakomi (425 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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.
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: 20. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 594 ha; 20 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 20, 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 3.1 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: 112 · 199 · 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.

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 112 · 199.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 23 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.

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 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.