Olympia fire, July 2022 Αρχαίας Ολυμπίας · Olympia
The fire started on 24 July 2022 in Olympia, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 777 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Western Greece since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 8 in Greece in 2022, of 29.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.3 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
- 777ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 24 Jul 2022 – 25 Jul 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Jul
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 37
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 296MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 10 days 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
-
777 ha reached on 24 Jul1.2 %
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 areas78 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland9.5 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub7.9 %
- Mixed forest4.5 %
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 Jul | 37.8 °C | 18 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Jul | 33.0 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jul after | 33.1 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Jul after | 33.6 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Jul after | 34.2 °C | 28 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Jul after | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Jul after | 33.0 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Jul after | 31.7 °C | 50 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Aug after | 31.3 °C | 51 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 37 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 31 % | 52 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
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 26 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 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 · 37Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,400 haPyrgos δημοτική ενότητα Πύργου4 August 2021 · 9 days · 12 km away
- 819 haPyrgos δημοτική ενότητα ΠύργουAugust 2025 · 2 days · 14 km away
- 330 haPyrgos δημοτική ενότητα ΠύργουJuly 2020 · 2 days · 14 km away
- 431 haPyrgos δημοτική ενότητα Πύργου6 August 2021 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 4,336 haErymanthos ΕρυμάνθουJune 2024 · 2 days · 37 km away
- 818 haWest Achaea Δυτικής ΑχαΐαςJuly 2022 · 2 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Olympia fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 July 2022 and 25 July 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 777 hectares (7.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Olympia (777 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199
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
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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.