Niscemi fire, May 2021 Niscemi
The fire started on 24 May 2021 in Niscemi, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 246 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 43th largest in Caltanissetta since 2016 (of 149 with a page). Number 123 in Italy in 2021, of 291.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 246ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 24 May 2021 – 24 May 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 May
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 13
- in a single hotspot: 193 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 602MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
24 May 2021 · 602 MW · 13
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 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3 ha in 2018, 4 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
246 ha reached on 24 May2.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Agricultural areas60 %
- Broadleaved forest17 %
- Coniferous forest16 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub7.1 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Sughereta di Niscemi ITA050007
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 May | 24.8 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 25 May after | 23.4 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 26 May after | 22.4 °C | 54 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 May after | 22.3 °C | 57 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 May after | 23.1 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 29 May after | 23.3 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 30 May after | 23.0 °C | 57 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 31 May after | 21.8 °C | 60 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 1 Jun after | 21.0 °C | 69 % | 27 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 2 Jun after | 21.5 °C | 65 % | 32 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 3 Jun after | 22.6 °C | 57 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 May 2021 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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
- 1,244 haNiscemiJuly 2025 · 4 days · 3 km away
- 1,329 haChiaramonte GulfiJune 2017 · 4 days · 26 km away
- 3,558 haButeraJuly 2026 · 21 days · 27 km away
- 1,868 haMonterosso AlmoAugust 2021 · 2 days · 33 km away
- 1,626 haFrancofonteJuly 2026 · 5 days · 36 km away
- 2,946 haPiazza Armerina4 August 2017 · 5 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Niscemi fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 May 2021 and 24 May 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 246 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Niscemi (246 ha, 2.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Niscemi and came within 4.7 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 24.8 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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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How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 13 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections 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.