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Melilli fire, 24 July 2023 Augusta, Melilli, Priolo Gargallo

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2023, 01:35 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2023 in Melilli, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,098 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Siracusa since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 15 in Italy in 2023, of 207.

Burnt area
1,098ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
24 Jul 2023 – 28 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
24 Jul
2023
Heat detections
25
in a single hotspot: 103 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
414MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul28 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728

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

The weather it burned in

44°high
48km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17 ha in 2017, 249 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 249 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Augusta
    599 ha reached on 19 Jul
    5.4 %
  2. Melilli 34,658 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the town where it started
    498 ha reached on 24 Jul
    3.7 %
  3. Priolo Gargallo 11,249 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town
    2 ha
    0.0 %

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 land cover41 %
  • Agricultural areas38 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub12 %
  • Artificial surfaces9.4 %

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 43.5 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Jul 43.8 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
26 Jul 37.7 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jul 32.9 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jul 35.2 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jul after 33.7 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Jul after 34.9 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Jul after 36.2 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Aug after 34.4 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 34.8 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug after 34.4 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Aug after 35.5 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Aug after 32.7 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 42
6 Aug after 33.6 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug after 33.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 17 Jul 2023
After · 4 Aug 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 26 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1064 µg/m³
Optical depth0.66
22232425262728293031
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 · 25Every 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 Melilli fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 24 July 2023 and 28 July 2023: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,098 hectares (11.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Augusta (599 ha, 5.4 %); Melilli (498 ha, 3.7 %); Priolo Gargallo (2 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.3 km of Priolo Gargallo. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very extreme.
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.

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

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
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.

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.