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Pelendri fire, August 2023 Πελένδρι · Pelendri, Agios Mamas, Zoopigi

Out · last measured on 2 Aug 2023

The fire started on 2 August 2023 in Pelendri, Cyprus, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 104 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Limassol since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 6 in Cyprus in 2023, of 6.

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
104ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
2 Aug 2023 – 2 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
2 Aug
2023
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Natura 2000
92%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

28°high
38km/h · peak gust
51%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Pelendri Πελένδρι 1,074 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town where it started
    85 ha
    2.7 %
  2. Agios Mamas Άγιος Μάμας 114 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    17 ha
    1.2 %
  3. Zoopigi Ζωοπηγή 140 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town
    1 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Coniferous forest93 %
  • Agricultural areas6.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 92 %

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.

Official record

According to Τμήμα Δασών, this fire started on 2 August 2023 and burned 100 ha (the satellite measured 104 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)
2 Aug 28.3 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Aug after 29.9 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Aug after 30.5 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Aug after 29.1 °C 51 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Aug after 29.8 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Aug after 29.1 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Aug after 27.1 °C 56 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Aug after 27.5 °C 57 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Aug after 27.8 °C 60 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Aug after 28.4 °C 55 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
12 Aug after 29.8 °C 53 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jul 2023
After · 9 Aug 2023

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 5 August 2023 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
PM1016 µg/m³
Optical depth0.17
3112345
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 Pelendri fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2023 and 2 August 2023: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 104 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pelendri (85 ha, 2.7 %); Agios Mamas (17 ha, 1.2 %); Zoopigi (1 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.6 km of Agios Mamas. 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 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 51 % and gusts hit 38 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 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.