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Pomorie fire, July 2016 Поморие · Pomorie, Burgas

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2016, 11:41 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2016 in Pomorie, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 406 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Burgas since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 11 in Bulgaria in 2016, of 24.

Burnt area
406ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
28 Jul 2016 – 28 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Jul
2016
Heat detections
17
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
573MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul28 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

28

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
34km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 3 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Pomorie Поморие 27,092 inhabitants · 3.9 km from the town where it started
    271 ha reached on 28 Jul
    0.6 %
  2. Burgas Бургас 189,086 inhabitants · 12.2 km from the town
    136 ha reached on 28 Jul
    0.2 %

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

  • Agricultural areas50 %
  • Other natural land46 %
  • Artificial surfaces3.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 97 %

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.

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)
28 Jul 30.9 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Jul after 30.7 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Jul after 31.3 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
31 Jul after 33.0 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
1 Aug after 32.1 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Aug after 32.0 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Aug after 29.5 °C 52 % 42 km/h 2.4 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2016
After · 4 Aug 2016

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 28 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1032 µg/m³
262728293031
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 · 17Every 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 Bulgaria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pomorie fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 28 July 2016 and 28 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 406 hectares (4.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pomorie (271 ha, 0.6 %); Burgas (136 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.9 km of Pomorie. 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 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (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

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.

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.