Monreale fire, June 2022 Monreale, Piana degli Albanesi
The fire started on 28 June 2022 in Monreale, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 163 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 129th largest in Palermo since 2016 (of 178 with a page). Number 99 in Italy in 2022, of 161.
The power measured by the satellite is low (0.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 163ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 28 Jun 2022 – 29 Jun 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 28 Jun
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 1 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
29 Jun 2022 · 1 MW · 1
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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 139 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
Monreale where it started163 ha reached on 29 Jun0.3 %
-
Piana degli Albanesi 5,541 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town0 ha0.0 %
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 natural land59 %
- Agricultural areas26 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub15 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 73 %
- ZEPA + LIC Monte Iato, Kumeta, Maganoce e Pizzo Parrino ITA020027
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jun | 33.0 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Jun | 27.8 °C | 48 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Jun after | 29.7 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Jul after | 29.4 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Jul after | 30.1 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Jul after | 29.6 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Jul after | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Jul after | 31.3 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Jul after | 26.2 °C | 50 % | 51 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Jul after | 24.0 °C | 49 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
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 28 June 2022 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 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 · 1Every 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 Monreale fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 28 June 2022 and 29 June 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 163 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Monreale (163 ha, 0.3 %); Piana degli Albanesi (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.8 km of Piana degli Albanesi. 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 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.