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Platanias fire, July 2018 δημοτική ενότητα Πλατανιά · Platanias, Kissamos

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2018, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 23 July 2018 in Platanias, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 197 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Crete since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 9 in Greece in 2018, of 17.

Burnt area
197ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
23 Jul 2018 – 24 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Jul
2018
Heat detections
15
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
401MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jul24 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

24

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
64km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 26 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Platanias δημοτική ενότητα Πλατανιά 5,979 inhabitants · 12.1 km from the town where it started
    173 ha reached on 24 Jul
    0.4 %
  2. Kissamos δημοτική ενότητα Κισσάμου 8,287 inhabitants · 13.6 km from the town
    24 ha reached on 24 Jul
    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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub52 %
  • Other natural land24 %
  • Agricultural areas21 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland2.5 %

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)
23 Jul 29.8 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jul 24.6 °C 53 % 64 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
25 Jul after 25.3 °C 57 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
26 Jul after 25.8 °C 58 % 51 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2018
After · 31 Jul 2018

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 23 July 2018 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1067 µg/m³
21222324252627
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 · 15Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Platanias fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2018 and 24 July 2018: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 197 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Platanias (173 ha, 0.4 %); Kissamos (24 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 12.1 km of Platanias. 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 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199

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 · 199.

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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.