Modica fire, July 2017 Modica
The fire started on 23 July 2017 in Modica, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 133 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 8th largest in Ragusa since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 271 in Italy in 2017, of 361.
The power measured by the satellite is low (14.1 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
- 133ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 23 Jul 2017 – 24 Jul 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Jul
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 13
- in a single hotspot: 14 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 112MW
- 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 6 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
-
133 ha reached on 23 Jul0.5 %
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 areas62 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub38 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jul | 37.4 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Jul | 34.8 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Jul after | 33.2 °C | 33 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Jul after | 29.7 °C | 39 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Jul after | 31.7 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Jul after | 32.7 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 31 Jul after | 33.2 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Aug after | 35.4 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Aug after | 37.1 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
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 24 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.4 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 · 13Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 620 haRagusaAugust 2021 · 2 days · 26 km away
- 1,868 haMonterosso AlmoAugust 2021 · 2 days · 29 km away
- 1,329 haChiaramonte GulfiJune 2017 · 4 days · 30 km away
- 469 haNoto17 August 2020 · 2 days · 32 km away
- 447 haAvola29 June 2017 · 2 days · 35 km away
- 653 haMonterosso AlmoJune 2021 · 4 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Modica fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2017 and 24 July 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 133 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Modica (133 ha, 0.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 16.6 km of Modica. 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 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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.