Rakaca fire, March 2022 Debrete, Viszla, Rakaca
The fire started on 22 March 2022 in Rakaca, Hungary, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 352 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 5 in Hungary in 2022, of 22.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.5 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
- 352ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 22 Mar 2022 – 23 Mar 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 11
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 65MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 30 Mar.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
211 ha reached on 23 Mar22 %
-
109 ha reached on 22 Mar9.9 %
-
Rakaca where it started16 ha reached on 22 Mar0.8 %
-
15 ha1.0 %
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
- Broadleaved forest53 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland30 %
- Agricultural areas16 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 20 %
- LIC Rakaca-völgy és oldalvölgyei HUAN20002
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 22.1 °C | 3 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 23 Mar | 23.2 °C | 3 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 24 Mar after | 19.8 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 25 Mar after | 18.7 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Mar after | 20.1 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Mar after | 16.3 °C | 5 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar after | 20.5 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 29 Mar after | 21.1 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 30 Mar after | 16.5 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 7 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 11Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rakaca fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 22 March 2022 and 23 March 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 352 hectares (3.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Debrete (211 ha, 22 %); Viszla (109 ha, 9.9 %); Rakaca (16 ha, 0.8 %); Rakacaszend (15 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.2 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 21 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Hungary (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
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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.