Burned area
satellite only149ha
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, 22 July 2020 Piazza Armerina
Out · last detection 25 Jul 2020, 12:42 UTC
The fire started on 22 July 2020 in Piazza Armerina, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 149 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 44th largest in Enna since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 77 in Italy in 2020, of 140.
Use this data
Compare with…
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 only8days
22 Jul 2020 to 29 Jul 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 25 Jul 2020, 12:42 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 only22 Jul 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 22 Jul 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only4
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 39 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 22 Jul 2020 – 29 Jul 2020
+− 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 only111MW
Total radiative power on 25 July 2020; hotspots that day: 4.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 25 Jul 2020
+− 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
model15.6FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 22 Jul 2020, 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
model30.0°C · 26% RH
High of 30.0 °C and minimum humidity of 26% on 25 July 2020; gusts of 36 km/h on 27 July 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 22 Jul 2020 – 29 Jul 2020
- 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.
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 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
- 149 ha
- Dates
- 22 Jul 2020 – 29 Jul 2020
- Name
- Piazza Armerina
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/piazza-armerina-2020-07?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-2020-07.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-07-22 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 17.5 | 38 | 13.5 | 28.1 | 0 | 15.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-07-23 | 0 | 0 | 29.6 | 16.9 | 33 | 15.3 | 35.3 | 0 | 26.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-24 | 0 | 0 | 29.2 | 17.6 | 31 | 16 | 35.3 | 0 | 29 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-25 | 4 | 111 | 30 | 17.9 | 26 | 10.8 | 28.8 | 0 | 32.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-26 | 0 | 0 | 27.7 | 17.4 | 41 | 16.2 | 32 | 0 | 30.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-27 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 | 14.8 | 32 | 15.7 | 36 | 0 | 26.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-28 | 0 | 0 | 29.1 | 18 | 33 | 15.5 | 34.2 | 0 | 30.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-29 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 19 | 38 | 13.3 | 31 | 0 | 29.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-30 | 0 | 0 | 29.9 | 19 | 41 | 15.5 | 34.6 | 0 | 30.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-07-31 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 | 20.9 | 44 | 14.5 | 35.3 | 0 | 31.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-01 | 0 | 0 | 33.4 | 19.3 | 24 | 12 | 24.5 | 0 | 39.5 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-02 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 19 | 32 | 15.9 | 35.3 | 0 | 40.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-03 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 | 19.8 | 49 | 17.5 | 36.7 | 0 | 35.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-04 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 20 | 45 | 17.7 | 44.3 | 0 | 35.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-05 | 0 | 0 | 26.7 | 19.1 | 38 | 19.8 | 34.9 | 0 | 31.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-06 | 0 | 0 | 26.7 | 17.8 | 38 | 13.1 | 29.2 | 0 | 31.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-07 | 0 | 0 | 26.2 | 16.8 | 42 | 9.8 | 24.1 | 0 | 24.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-08 | 0 | 0 | 27.3 | 16.8 | 39 | 13.3 | 33.8 | 0 | 32.9 | 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). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 149ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 8days
- 22 Jul 2020 – 29 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 111MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
22 Jul29 Jul
How it evolved, day by day
25 Jul 2020 · 111 MW · 4
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
30°high
36km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 59 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
149 ha reached on 25 Jul0.5 %
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 areas58 %
- Mixed forest42 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jul | 28.9 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 23 Jul | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Jul | 29.2 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Jul | 30.0 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Jul | 27.7 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Jul | 28.5 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Jul | 29.1 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Jul | 29.3 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Jul after | 29.9 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 31 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Aug after | 33.4 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 3 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 49 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 45 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Aug after | 26.2 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 15.6, a minimum humidity of 38% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 29.
FWI at the start
15.6
Minimum humidity
38 %
Days without rain
2
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Piazza Armerina fire, 22 July 2020
149 ha
8 days
FWI 15.6
Min. humidity 38 %
Casteltermini fire, August 2022
159 ha
1 day
FWI 16.8
Min. humidity 38 %
59 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 1 Sept.
Messina fire, May 2020
222 ha
2 days
FWI 15.4
Min. humidity 39 %
152 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 19 May.
Bivona fire, October 2025
103 ha
1 day
FWI 19.3
Min. humidity 36 %
83 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.1 mm on 14 Oct.
Cattolica Eraclea fire, August 2018
108 ha
1 day
FWI 21.9
Min. humidity 38 %
74 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 14 Aug.
Sutera fire, September 2019
126 ha
3 days
FWI 21.4
Min. humidity 39 %
49 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.7 mm on 20 Sept.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 163 ha
- median area
- 10 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 15 of 29 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (149 ha against a median of 163 ha) and lasted 8 days, against 2 days.
In 14 of 29, 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 2.1 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
36km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 29 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 29, with a median of 2.1 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 · 15 Jul 2020
After · 5 Aug 2020
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 27 July 2020 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
23 Jul25 Jul27 Jul29 Jul
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 · 4Every 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?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 July 2020 to 29 July 2020 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 July 2020 to 26 July 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 149 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Piazza Armerina (149 ha, 0.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Piazza Armerina and came within 8.0 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 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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: 29. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 163 ha; 10 % went past 1,000 ha. In 14 of 29, 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 2.1 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 July 2020 to 26 July 2020. 4 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.
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.