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Naro fire, July 2019 Palma di Montechiaro, Naro, Camastra

Out · last detection 9 Jul 2019, 00:44 UTC

The fire started on 8 July 2019 in Naro, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 243 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 100th largest in Agrigento since 2016 (of 289 with a page). Number 21 in Italy in 2019, of 103.

The power measured by the satellite is low (6.1 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
243ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
8 Jul 2019 – 9 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
8 Jul
2019
Heat detections
3
in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
10MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jul9 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

89

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 200 ha in 2016, 66 ha in 2017, 144 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 212 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Palma di Montechiaro 21,373 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town
    108 ha reached on 8 Jul
    1.4 %
  2. Naro 7,007 inhabitants · 6.6 km from the town where it started
    74 ha reached on 8 Jul
    0.4 %
  3. Camastra 2,010 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town
    62 ha
    3.8 %

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 land73 %
  • Agricultural areas27 %

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)
8 Jul 37.5 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jul 34.4 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Jul after 33.4 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Jul after 33.0 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Jul after 29.9 °C 46 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jul after 29.9 °C 47 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Jul after 32.3 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Jul after 28.3 °C 57 % 36 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 19
16 Jul after 28.1 °C 46 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jul after 30.1 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jul after 29.6 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul after 29.6 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jul 2019
After · 16 Jul 2019

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 3Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Naro fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 8 July 2019 and 9 July 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 243 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Palma di Montechiaro (108 ha, 1.4 %); Naro (74 ha, 0.4 %); Camastra (62 ha, 3.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.1 km of Palma di Montechiaro. 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 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.