Messina fire, 9 July 2017 Messina
The fire started on 9 July 2017 in Messina, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 577 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Messina since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 33 in Italy in 2017, of 361.
- Burnt area
- 577ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 9 Jul 2017 – 11 Jul 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 9 Jul
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 28
- in a single hotspot: 193 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 817MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.0 mm on 16 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
578 ha reached on 9 Jul2.7 %
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
- Other natural land78 %
- Artificial surfaces14 %
- Broadleaved forest6.4 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub1.7 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 49 %
- LIC Dorsale Curcuraci, Antennamare ITA030011
- ZEPA Monti Peloritani, Dorsale Curcuraci, Antennamare e area marina dello stretto di Messina ITA030042
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Jul | 27.7 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Jul | 29.2 °C | 39 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 11 Jul | 30.1 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Jul after | 26.3 °C | 59 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Jul after | 25.9 °C | 61 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Jul after | 26.8 °C | 64 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Jul after | 23.7 °C | 71 % | 34 km/h | 12.0 mm | Very low 1 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 11 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 28Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,633 haMessina24 July 2023 · 3 days · 4 km away
- 1,199 haReggio di Calabria18 July 2023 · 4 days · 16 km away
- 911 haReggio di Calabria11 July 2017 · 3 days · 17 km away
- 894 haReggio di Calabria18 July 2023 · 6 days · 21 km away
- 1,088 haReggio di Calabria27 July 2021 · 4 days · 30 km away
- 3,114 haMotta San GiovanniJuly 2023 · 6 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Messina fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 9 July 2017 and 11 July 2017: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 577 hectares (5.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Messina (578 ha, 2.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.7 km of Messina. 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 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.
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
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.