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Pachna fire, July 2022 Πάχνα · Pachna, Vouni, Agios Amvrosios Lemesou

Out · last measured on 19 Jul 2022

The fire started on 19 July 2022 in Pachna, Cyprus, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 199 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Limassol since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 2 in Cyprus in 2022, of 2.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
199ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
19 Jul 2022 – 19 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
19 Jul
2022
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

31°high
36km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 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

  1. Pachna Πάχνα 865 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town where it started
    79 ha
    2.8 %
  2. Vouni Βουνί 149 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    73 ha
    5.0 %
  3. Agios Amvrosios Lemesou
    47 ha
    3.2 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub74 %
  • Agricultural areas24 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland2.5 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to Τμήμα Δασών, this fire started on 19 July 2022 and burned 183 ha (the satellite measured 199 ha).

Τμήμα Δασών (Departamento de Bosques de Chipre), catálogo de incendios forestales. This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
19 Jul 31.4 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jul after 29.1 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jul after 28.9 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Jul after 30.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Jul after 30.4 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Jul after 31.8 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Jul after 30.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jul after 30.0 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jul after 30.4 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Jul after 29.8 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Jul after 29.0 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jul 2022
After · 26 Jul 2022

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 18 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1013 µg/m³
171819202122
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Cyprus ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pachna fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 19 July 2022 and 19 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 199 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pachna (79 ha, 2.8 %); Vouni (73 ha, 5.0 %); Agios Amvrosios Lemesou (47 ha, 3.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Pachna. 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 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cyprus (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 · 1407

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 · 1407.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported). 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.