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IT · Italy · –

Mammola fire, July 2021 Mammola, Agnana Calabra, Grotteria

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2021, 01:28 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2021 in Mammola, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 272 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Reggio di Calabria since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 105 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.2 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
272ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
30 Jul 2021 – 2 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
30 Jul
2021
Heat detections
12
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Average daily power
34MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul2 Aug
2 Aug 2021

How it evolved, day by day

31 Jul 2021 · 76 MW · 6 1 Aug 2021 · 20 MW · 5 2 Aug 2021 · 6 MW · 1
31 Jul 1 Aug 2 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

33°high
32km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 42 ha in 2017, 1 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Mammola 2,448 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the centre where it started
    271 ha reached on 31 Jul
    3.4 %
  2. Agnana Calabra 467 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the centre
    1 ha
    0.1 %
  3. 0 ha reached on 1 Aug
    0.0 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland75 %
  • Agricultural areas18 %
  • Other natural land6.6 %

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)
30 Jul 32.6 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
31 Jul 30.3 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Aug 32.8 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Aug 30.7 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Aug after 30.0 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Aug after 30.6 °C 50 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Aug after 28.5 °C 52 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Aug after 26.5 °C 52 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Aug after 27.3 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Aug after 29.3 °C 52 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Aug after 31.2 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Aug after 32.2 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Aug after 34.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Aug after 29.7 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 21.4, a minimum humidity of 33% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 39.

FWI at the start 21.4
Minimum humidity 33 %
Days without rain 11
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Montebello Jonico fire, August 2020
109 ha 2 days FWI 22.0 Min. humidity 32 % 58 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
177 ha
median area
3 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 31 of 39 had it)

It was 1.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 4 days, against 2 days.

Only 11 of its 39 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 8 of 39, 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 3.4 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
32km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 31 of 39, with a median of 3.4 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 · 23 Jul 2021
After · 9 Aug 2021

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 1 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1055 µg/m³
29 Jul31 Jul2 Aug4 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 · 12Every 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 Italy

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mammola fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 July 2021 to 2 August 2021 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2021 to 2 August 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 272 hectares (2.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mammola (271 ha, 3.4 %); Agnana Calabra (1 ha, 0.1 %); Grotteria (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 2.4 km of the centre of Agnana Calabra, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
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.
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: 39. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 177 ha; 3 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 11 of its 39 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 8 of 39, 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 3.4 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 · 1515 · 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 · 1515.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 July 2021 to 2 August 2021. 12 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 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.