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Oropos fire, August 2017 δημοτική ενότητα Ωρωπίων · Oropos, Marathon

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2017, 11:58 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2017 in Oropos, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,839 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Attica since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 2 in Greece in 2017, of 32.

Burnt area
2,839ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
13 Aug 2017 – 16 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 Aug
2017
Heat detections
243
in a single hotspot: 322 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug16 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

131415

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
76km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 21 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Oropos δημοτική ενότητα Ωρωπίων 8,447 inhabitants · 11.3 km from the town where it started
    2,213 ha reached on 13 Aug
    6.5 %
  2. Marathon Δημοτική Ενότητα ΜΑΡΑΘΩΝΟΣ 7,918 inhabitants
    632 ha reached on 13 Aug
    2.9 %

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 land71 %
  • Agricultural areas25 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.5 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland1.2 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub1.0 %

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)
13 Aug 32.1 °C 16 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Aug 29.6 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Aug 29.8 °C 34 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug 29.0 °C 32 % 76 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 56
17 Aug after 29.7 °C 25 % 73 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
18 Aug after 30.0 °C 25 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Aug after 31.0 °C 21 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
20 Aug after 31.2 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Aug after 29.9 °C 31 % 38 km/h 3.9 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Aug 2017
After · 23 Aug 2017

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 14 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak38 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1047 µg/m³
111213141516171819
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 · 243Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Oropos fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2017 and 16 August 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,839 hectares (28.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Oropos (2,213 ha, 6.5 %); Marathon (632 ha, 2.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 11.3 km of Oropos. 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 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 76 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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
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 · 199.

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.