How long did the Nikopol fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 3 September 2023 and 3 September 2023: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 115 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tomakivka (85 ha, 0.1 %); Nikopol (31 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 16.6 km of Tomakivka. 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 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

UA · Ukraine · 2023-09-03 → 2023-09-03

Nikopol fire, September 2023 Нікополь · Tomakivka, Nikopol

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2023, 11:24 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2023 in Nikopol, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 115 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 153th largest in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast since 2016 (of 183 with a page). Number 426 in Ukraine in 2023, of 491.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.4 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: 115ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 3 Sept 2023 – 3 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 3 Sept; 2023
Heat detections: 5; in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start: 17; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 28MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept3 Sept

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

26°high

33km/h · peak gust

38%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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

Tomakivka Томаківський район 24,658 inhabitants · 16.6 km from the town

85 ha reached on 3 Sept

0.1 %
Nikopol Нікополь 105,160 inhabitants · 21.8 km from the town where it started

31 ha reached on 3 Sept

0.0 %

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

Agricultural areas74 %
Other natural land21 %
Mixed forest5.1 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
3 Sept	26.2 °C	38 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
4 Sept after	27.2 °C	44 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
5 Sept after	27.5 °C	40 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 21
6 Sept after	27.3 °C	43 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
7 Sept after	26.1 °C	38 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 Sept after	23.2 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
9 Sept after	20.9 °C	39 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
10 Sept after	21.5 °C	37 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
11 Sept after	23.8 °C	37 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
12 Sept after	24.7 °C	35 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
13 Sept after	26.4 °C	31 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Aug 2023

After · 10 Sept 2023

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 5 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1022 µg/m³

Optical depth1.11

WHO 15

123456

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 5Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Nikopol fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 3 September 2023 and 3 September 2023: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 115 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tomakivka (85 ha, 0.1 %); Nikopol (31 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 16.6 km of Tomakivka. 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 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (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: 101 · 112

ДСНС · State Emergency Service ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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 101 · 112.

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 (Public Domain). 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.

Where it burned