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Petrykivka fire, 22 March 2022 Петриківський район · Petrykivka

Out · last detection 28 Mar 2022, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 22 March 2022 in Petrykivka, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 295 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast since 2016 (of 183 with a page). Number 165 in Ukraine in 2022, of 531.

Burnt area
295ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
7days
22 Mar 2022 – 28 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Mar
2022
Heat detections
9
in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
140MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Mar28 Mar
28 Mar 2022

How it evolved, day by day

22 Mar 2022 · 198 MW · 4 28 Mar 2022 · 82 MW · 5
22 Mar 28 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

15°high
68km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 2 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Petrykivka Петриківський район 25,110 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre where it started
    295 ha reached on 22 Mar
    0.2 %

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

  • Other natural land73 %
  • Agricultural areas17 %
  • Mixed forest11 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
22 Mar 10.9 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
23 Mar 13.7 °C 26 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
24 Mar 13.9 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
25 Mar 11.6 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
26 Mar 15.4 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
27 Mar 6.6 °C 54 % 68 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 4
28 Mar 10.2 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
29 Mar after 17.6 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
30 Mar after 17.6 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
31 Mar after 19.9 °C 38 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Apr after 22.6 °C 29 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Apr after 18.8 °C 44 % 72 km/h 4.3 mm High 23

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 7.6, a minimum humidity of 34% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2021: 18.

FWI at the start 7.6
Minimum humidity 34 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Marinka fire, February 2024
126 ha 1 day FWI 6.7 Min. humidity 34 % 217 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
172 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 6 of 18 had it)

It was 1.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 7 days, against 1 day.

Only 1 of its 18 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 12 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.2 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

4.3 mmfirst rain
2 Apr5 days after it ended
68km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 28 Mar, and on 2 Apr 4.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 6 of 18, with a median of 3.2 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2021.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Mar 2022
After · 4 Apr 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 31 March 2022 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak38 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1044 µg/m³
26 Mar28 Mar30 Mar
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 · 9Every 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 Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Petrykivka fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 March 2022 to 28 March 2022 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 March 2022 to 28 March 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 295 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Petrykivka (295 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Petrykivka and came within 2.0 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 15.4 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2021 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 18. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 172 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 1 of its 18 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 12 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.2 mm.

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: 101 · 112 · 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.

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 101 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 March 2022 to 28 March 2022. 9 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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.