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Palagonia fire, July 2026 Palagonia, Militello in Val di Catania

Out · last measured on 21 Jul 2026

The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Palagonia, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 124 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 59th largest in Catania since 2016 (of 76 with a page). Number 179 in Italy in 2026, of 232.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Francofonte · 2026Carlentini · 2026Augusta · 2023Piazza Armerina · 2017

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
124ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
18 Jul 2026 – 21 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Jul
2026
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

46°high
28km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Palagonia 15,784 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started
    106 ha
    1.8 %
  2. Militello in Val di Catania 6,765 inhabitants · 5.3 km from the centre
    18 ha
    0.3 %

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 areas61 %
  • Other natural land32 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub6.9 %

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)
18 Jul 45.8 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Jul 43.0 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Jul 45.8 °C 7 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Jul 44.5 °C 8 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Jul after 44.0 °C 9 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Jul after 39.5 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Jul after 37.2 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Jul after 35.7 °C 19 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jul after 34.8 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Jul after 38.8 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jul after 32.0 °C 62 % 44 km/h 0.5 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jul 2026
After · 28 Jul 2026

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 21 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1081 µg/m³
Optical depth0.56
161718192021
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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Palagonia fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 July 2026 to 21 July 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 July 2026 to 18 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 124 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Palagonia (106 ha, 1.8 %); Militello in Val di Catania (18 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Palagonia and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 45.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
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.

RSS Changes to this page

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 · 1515.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 July 2026 to 18 July 2026. No 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.