Rhodes fire, July 2023 Ρόδος · Rhodes
The fire started on 18 July 2023 in Rhodes, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 18,626 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the largest fire in South Aegean since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 2 in Greece in 2023, of 34.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Rhodes · 2016Rhodes · 2021
- Burnt area
- 18,626ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 10days
- 18 Jul 2023 – 27 Jul 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 943
- in a single hotspot: 461 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 4.3GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 29 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Athens boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
18,660 ha reached on 18 Jul13 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland42 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub21 %
- Agricultural areas20 %
- Other natural land7.9 %
- Coniferous forest7.9 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 3 %
- ZEPA ANATOLIKI RODOS: PROFITIS ILIAS - EPTA PIGES - EKVOLI LOUTANI - KATERGO, REMA GADOURA - CHERSONISOS LINDOU - NISIDES PENTANISA KAI TETRAPOLIS, LOFOS PSALIDI GR4210029
- LIC RODOS: AKRAMYTIS, ARMENISTIS, ATTAVYROS, REMATA KAI THALASSIA ZONI (KARAVOLA-ORMOS GLYFADA) GR4210005
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.
Checked against the press
Checked on 30 September 2026We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Πυρκαγιά στη Ρόδο · Rhodes wildfire · Φωτιά Λάερμα
- Official area reported: 17,629 ha (the satellite measured 18,626 ha)
Sources
- BEYOND-ΕΑΑ: Απολογισμός καμένων εκτάσεων για τον μήνα Ιούλιο — dasarxeio.com (BEYOND/Observatorio Nacional de Atenas), 4 August 2023 · official source
- Πυρκαγιά στη Ρόδο (Ιούλιος 2023) — Kratiki Arogi (Gobierno de Grecia) · official source
- Φωτιά στη Ρόδο: 176.287 καμένα στρέμματα στο νησί - Η αποτίμηση της πυρκαγιάς από το Copernicus — Ethnos, 24 August 2023
- Overview 2023: Greece - Lessons Not Learned — International Association of Wildland Fire
Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 36.8 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Jul | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Jul | 36.8 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Jul | 39.8 °C | 17 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Jul | 40.2 °C | 15 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 23 Jul | 42.1 °C | 11 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 92 |
| 24 Jul | 38.3 °C | 14 % | 68 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 111 |
| 25 Jul | 38.6 °C | 12 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 26 Jul | 40.2 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Jul | 38.6 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Jul after | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 29 Jul after | 34.7 °C | 23 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 30 Jul after | 36.5 °C | 21 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 31 Jul after | 33.9 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Aug after | 34.4 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Aug after | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 4 Aug after | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 5 Aug after | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 6 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 943Every 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 Rhodes fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 18 July 2023 and 27 July 2023: 10 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 18,626 hectares (186.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rhodes (18,660 ha, 13 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 111, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199 · 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.
No changes 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 943 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.