Niscemi fire, August 2026 Niscemi
The fire started on 12 August 2026 in Niscemi, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 162 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 85th largest in Caltanissetta since 2016 (of 149 with a page). Number 139 in Italy in 2026, of 231.
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- Burnt area
- 162ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 11days
- 12 Aug 2026 – 22 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 9
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 173MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
12 Aug 2026 · 173 MW · 9
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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8 ha in 2018, 20 ha in 2019, 98 ha in 2021, 33 ha in 2022, 150 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 158 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
162 ha reached on 12 Aug1.7 %
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 areas80 %
- Broadleaved forest19 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Aug | 32.9 °C | 49 % | 23 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 13 Aug | 32.1 °C | 52 % | 22 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 14 Aug | 31.3 °C | 48 % | 25 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 23 |
| 15 Aug | 30.2 °C | 58 % | 24 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Aug | 29.4 °C | 60 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Aug | 30.1 °C | 61 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Aug | 29.2 °C | 65 % | 35 km/h | 3.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 19 Aug | 29.5 °C | 65 % | 22 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 11 |
| 20 Aug | 29.7 °C | 66 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 21 Aug | 29.9 °C | 66 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 22 Aug | 31.1 °C | 67 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 23 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 68 % | 23 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 58 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Aug after | 30.9 °C | 60 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 53 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 53 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Aug after | 35.0 °C | 50 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Aug after | 34.8 °C | 48 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Aug after | 33.9 °C | 41 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 51 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 57 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
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 15 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 25 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 · 9Every 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 · 2 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 · 32 km away
- 1,626 haFrancofonteJuly 2026 · 5 days · 35 km away
- 2,946 haPiazza Armerina4 August 2017 · 5 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Niscemi fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (12 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 22 August 2026 (11 days from 12 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 162 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Niscemi (162 ha, 1.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Niscemi and came within 4.9 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 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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 · 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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 9 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.