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Menfi fire, June 2017 Menfi

Out · last measured on 28 Jun 2017

The fire started on 28 June 2017 in Menfi, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 195 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 130th largest in Agrigento since 2016 (of 289 with a page). Number 174 in Italy in 2017, of 361.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
195ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
28 Jun 2017 – 28 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Jun
2017
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
48km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Menfi 11,814 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town where it started
    196 ha
    1.7 %

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

  • Agricultural areas100 %

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)
28 Jun 33.1 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Jun after 32.6 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jun after 33.1 °C 25 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Jul after 29.8 °C 50 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Jul after 26.9 °C 41 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Jul after 28.6 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Jul after 30.1 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jul after 31.3 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Jul after 32.0 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Jul after 33.3 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Jul after 33.6 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jun 2017
After · 5 Jul 2017

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 30 June 2017 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1038 µg/m³
26272829301
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Menfi fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 28 June 2017 and 28 June 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 195 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Menfi (196 ha, 1.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.2 km of Menfi. 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 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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.

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.