Mirditë fire, 17 August 2017 Mirditë, Dibër
The fire started on 17 August 2017 in Mirditë, Albania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,936 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Lezhë since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 2 in Albania in 2017, of 83.
- Burnt area
- 2,936ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 17 Aug 2017 – 22 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 430
- in a single hotspot: 112 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 174MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.6 mm on 3 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Mirditë where it started2,930 ha reached on 16 Aug3.4 %
-
7 ha reached on 16 Aug0.0 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub61 %
- Broadleaved forest13 %
- Mixed forest10 %
- Other natural land6.0 %
- Coniferous forest5.8 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland3.0 %
- Agricultural areas1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Aug | 30.0 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Aug | 29.5 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Aug | 27.9 °C | 28 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Aug | 27.9 °C | 21 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 9 Aug | 28.6 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Aug | 28.9 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Aug | 28.1 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Aug | 21.8 °C | 51 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Aug | 15.1 °C | 54 % | 72 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Aug | 18.4 °C | 51 % | 72 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 15 Aug | 21.4 °C | 41 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Aug | 23.1 °C | 38 % | 56 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 17 Aug | 22.5 °C | 37 % | 56 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 Aug | 23.7 °C | 30 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Aug | 25.6 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Aug | 24.6 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Aug | 16.7 °C | 52 % | 72 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 22 Aug | 17.0 °C | 31 % | 78 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Aug after | 19.1 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 24 Aug after | 20.5 °C | 23 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Aug after | 24.1 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Aug after | 25.0 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Aug after | 25.1 °C | 24 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Aug after | 18.5 °C | 38 % | 64 km/h | 5.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 30 Aug after | 20.4 °C | 36 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 31 Aug after | 21.5 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Sept after | 22.4 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Sept after | 23.0 °C | 39 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Sept after | 16.0 °C | 44 % | 76 km/h | 16.6 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 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 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 · 430Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mirditë fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 17 August 2017 and 22 August 2017: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,936 hectares (29.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mirditë (2,930 ha, 3.4 %); Dibër (7 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 78 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Albania (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: 128 · 112
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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic). 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.