Randazzo fire, August 2019 Randazzo, Bronte
The fire started on 3 August 2019 in Randazzo, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,156 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Catania since 2016 (of 76 with a page). Number 2 in Italy in 2019, of 103.
- Burnt area
- 1,156ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 3 Aug 2019 – 4 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 3 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 45
- in a single hotspot: 46 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 615MW
- 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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 92 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Randazzo where it started1,061 ha reached on 3 Aug5.2 %
-
97 ha reached on 3 Aug0.4 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub73 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland11 %
- Other natural land9.3 %
- Agricultural areas6.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 1 %
- ZEPA + LIC Lago Gurrida e Sciare di S. Venera ITA070019
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug | 29.8 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Aug | 27.4 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Aug after | 30.8 °C | 32 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 51 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.8 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 11 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 42 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 48 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
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 · 45Every 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 Randazzo fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 3 August 2019 and 4 August 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,156 hectares (11.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Randazzo (1,061 ha, 5.2 %); Bronte (97 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.
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
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 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.