How long did the Prizzi fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2021 and 1 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,054 hectares (10.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Prizzi (614 ha, 6.5 %); Palazzo Adriano (442 ha, 3.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.7 km of Palazzo Adriano. 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 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.

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.

IT · Italy · 2021-07-29 → 2021-08-01

Prizzi fire, July 2021 Prizzi, Palazzo Adriano

Out · last detection 1 Aug 2021, 01:47 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2021 in Prizzi, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,054 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Palermo since 2016 (of 178 with a page). Number 16 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

Burnt area: 1,054ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 29 Jul 2021 – 1 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 29 Jul; 2021
Heat detections: 34; in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start: 41; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 328MW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Aug 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul1 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2930311

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

52km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Prizzi 4,172 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the town where it started

614 ha reached on 29 Jul

6.5 %
Palazzo Adriano 1,814 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town

442 ha reached on 30 Jul

3.4 %

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

Other natural land77 %
Agricultural areas23 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 46 %

ZEPA + LIC Monte d'Indisi, Montagna dei Cavalli, Pizzo Pontorno e Pian del Leone ITA020031
ZEPA Monti Sicani, Rocca Busambra e Bosco della Ficuzza ITA020048

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	Danger (FWI)
29 Jul	33.9 °C	17 %	35 km/h	Very high 41
30 Jul	31.9 °C	21 %	52 km/h	Extreme 51
31 Jul	36.8 °C	13 %	29 km/h	Very high 42
1 Aug	36.2 °C	15 %	40 km/h	Very high 49
2 Aug after	32.9 °C	24 %	28 km/h	Very high 39
3 Aug after	33.2 °C	12 %	24 km/h	Very high 43
4 Aug after	34.0 °C	15 %	53 km/h	Extreme 57
5 Aug after	30.8 °C	27 %	39 km/h	Very high 41
6 Aug after	29.8 °C	23 %	37 km/h	Very high 43
7 Aug after	30.2 °C	23 %	41 km/h	Very high 45
8 Aug after	32.0 °C	19 %	41 km/h	Very high 46
9 Aug after	36.2 °C	15 %	28 km/h	Very high 44
10 Aug after	37.5 °C	10 %	33 km/h	Extreme 52
11 Aug after	37.5 °C	12 %	52 km/h	Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Jul 2021

After · 8 Aug 2021

Before After

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 30 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak33 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM1064 µg/m³

WHO 15

27282930311234

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 · 34Every 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

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Prizzi fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2021 and 1 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,054 hectares (10.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Prizzi (614 ha, 6.5 %); Palazzo Adriano (442 ha, 3.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.7 km of Palazzo Adriano. 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 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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.

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

Protezione Civile ↗
Carabinieri Forestali (1515) ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

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.

Where it burned