Burned area
satellite only2,946ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
IT · Italy · –
Piazza Armerina fire, 4 August 2017 Aidone, Enna, Piazza Armerina
Out · last detection 8 Aug 2017, 01:09 UTC
The fire started on 4 August 2017 in Piazza Armerina, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,946 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Enna since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 4 in Italy in 2017, of 361.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Enna · 2021Naro · 2017Enna · 2021Nicosia · 2016
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only5days
4 Aug 2017 to 8 Aug 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 8 Aug 2017, 01:09 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only4 Aug 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 4 Aug 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only164
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 185 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 4 Aug 2017 – 8 Aug 2017
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,266MW
Total radiative power on 4 August 2017; hotspots that day: 31.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 4 Aug 2017
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model37.1FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 4 Aug 2017, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.1°C · 18% RH
High of 36.1 °C and minimum humidity of 18% on 6 August 2017; gusts of 40 km/h on 8 August 2017.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 4 Aug 2017 – 8 Aug 2017
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 30people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.7 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2015).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,946 ha
- Dates
- 4 Aug 2017 – 8 Aug 2017
- Name
- Piazza Armerina
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/piazza-armerina-2017-08-3?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire piazza-armerina-2017-08-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-08-04 | 31 | 1,266 | 35.5 | 21.3 | 21 | 8.6 | 25.2 | 0 | 37.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-08-05 | 24 | 227 | 35.1 | 20.5 | 23 | 8.2 | 18.7 | 0 | 36.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-08-06 | 100 | 936 | 36.1 | 21.7 | 18 | 8 | 19.8 | 0 | 39.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-08-07 | 8 | 19 | 34.3 | 20.9 | 21 | 10.3 | 24.1 | 0 | 41.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-08-08 | 1 | 7 | 33.6 | 19.8 | 28 | 14.3 | 40.3 | 0 | 42.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-08-09 | 0 | 0 | 33.7 | 20.1 | 22 | 15.9 | 38.9 | 0 | 44.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-10 | 0 | 0 | 33.7 | 19.4 | 20 | 14.8 | 34.2 | 0 | 43.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-11 | 0 | 0 | 31.4 | 20.9 | 39 | 13.9 | 39.2 | 0.1 | 34.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-12 | 0 | 0 | 26.5 | 17.5 | 36 | 17.1 | 40.7 | 0 | 35.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-13 | 0 | 0 | 25.7 | 16.6 | 41 | 17.2 | 39.2 | 0 | 32.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-14 | 0 | 0 | 27.9 | 14.2 | 31 | 6.6 | 19.4 | 0 | 26.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-15 | 0 | 0 | 29.8 | 14.9 | 26 | 6 | 17.3 | 0 | 28.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-16 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 16.7 | 29 | 8.6 | 24.8 | 0 | 30.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-17 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 | 17.6 | 27 | 9.4 | 23.4 | 0 | 31.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-08-18 | 0 | 0 | 29.4 | 16 | 32 | 7.8 | 19.8 | 0 | 30.4 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,946ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 4 Aug 2017 – 8 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 164
- in a single hotspot: 185 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 491MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
4 Aug8 Aug
8 Aug 2017
How it evolved, day by day
4 Aug
5 Aug
6 Aug
7 Aug
8 Aug
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
36°high
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 28 ha in 2016.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Rome boundary: geoBoundaries · ISTAT, National Institute of Statistics (CC BY 3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Aidone 4,183 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre1,489 ha reached on 4 Aug7.1 %
-
Enna 6,837 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the centre1,083 ha reached on 5 Aug3.0 %
-
378 ha reached on 4 Aug1.2 %
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
- Coniferous forest37 %
- Broadleaved forest35 %
- Mixed forest14 %
- Other natural land7.1 %
- Agricultural areas5.8 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland1.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 37 %
- ZEPA + LIC Boschi di Piazza Armerina ITA060012
- ZEPA + LIC Vallone Rossomanno ITA060010
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Built-up area1.7 ha
Residents≈ 30
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.7 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 1.2 % of the area in Italy
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Aug | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Aug | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Aug | 36.1 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Aug | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Aug | 33.6 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 41 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Aug after | 27.9 °C | 31 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 26 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 37.1, a minimum humidity of 21% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.
FWI at the start
37.1
Minimum humidity
21 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Piazza Armerina fire, 4 August 2017
2,946 ha
5 days
FWI 37.1
Min. humidity 21 %
Enna fire, August 2021
750 ha
2 days
FWI 39.2
Min. humidity 21 %
11 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Naro fire, July 2017
178 ha
2 days
FWI 44.0
Min. humidity 23 %
62 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sant'Angelo Muxaro fire, July 2023
161 ha
1 day
FWI 35.4
Min. humidity 23 %
79 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.6 mm on 5 Aug.
Agrigento fire, July 2024
575 ha
4 days
FWI 37.9
Min. humidity 24 %
83 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Butera fire, July 2023
107 ha
3 days
FWI 37.3
Min. humidity 20 %
34 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 255 ha
- median area
- 9 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 10.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 7 of 23 had it)
It was 11.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 5 days, against 2 days.
None of its 23 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 16 of 23, 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 10.1 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
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
40km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 8 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 7 of 23, with a median of 10.1 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 2016.
- 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 28 Jul 2017
After · 15 Aug 2017
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 164Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Piazza Armerina fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 4 August 2017 and 8 August 2017: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,946 hectares (29.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Aidone (1,489 ha, 7.1 %); Enna (1,083 ha, 3.0 %); Piazza Armerina (378 ha, 1.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 2.0 km of the centre of Aidone, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
- 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 255 ha; 9 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 23 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 16 of 23, 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 10.1 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: 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 With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 164 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.