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IT · Italy · –

Pozzuoli fire, June 2022 Pozzuoli

Out · last detection 28 Jun 2022, 01:39 UTC

The fire started on 27 June 2022 in Pozzuoli, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 182 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 8th largest in Napoli since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 78 in Italy in 2022, of 161.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
182ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
27 Jun 2022 – 28 Jun 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Jun
2022
Heat detections
13
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
40MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jun28 Jun
28 Jun 2022

How it evolved, day by day

27 Jun 2022 · 68 MW · 8 28 Jun 2022 · 11 MW · 5
27 Jun 28 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
29km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 8 Jul.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 72 ha in 2017, 21 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 72 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pozzuoli 76,331 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre where it started
    182 ha reached on 27 Jun
    4.2 %

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 land62 %
  • Broadleaved forest16 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
  • Artificial surfaces3.3 %
  • Agricultural areas2.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 91 %

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)
27 Jun 30.9 °C 50 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Jun 31.5 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Jun after 27.2 °C 70 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
30 Jun after 27.7 °C 63 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Jul after 29.3 °C 59 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Jul after 29.2 °C 60 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Jul after 29.9 °C 59 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Jul after 29.7 °C 61 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Jul after 28.7 °C 63 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
6 Jul after 28.8 °C 67 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Jul after 28.2 °C 65 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
8 Jul after 28.6 °C 34 % 30 km/h 1.8 mm High 22

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.8, a minimum humidity of 50% and 17 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 25.8
Minimum humidity 50 %
Days without rain 17
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Castel di Sasso fire, July 2021
108 ha 5 days FWI 25.4 Min. humidity 50 % 40 km away, in 2021

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

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
159 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 12 of 15 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (182 ha against a median of 159 ha) and lasted 2 days, against 5 days.

In 3 of 15, 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 5.0 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

1.8 mmfirst rain
8 Jul10 days after it ended
29km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 28 Jun, and on 8 Jul 1.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 15, with a median of 5.0 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jun 2022
After · 5 Jul 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 28 June 2022 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak34 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1066 µg/m³
25 Jun27 Jun29 Jun1 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 · 13Every 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 Italy

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pozzuoli fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 27 June 2022 and 28 June 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 182 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pozzuoli (182 ha, 4.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Pozzuoli and came within 2.1 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 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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: 15. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 159 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. In 3 of 15, 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 5.0 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.

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 · 1515.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 13 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 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.