Burned area
satellite only292ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 20 July 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
IT · Italy · –
San Cipirello fire, July 2026 San Cipirello, Monreale, San Giuseppe Jato
Out · last detection 20 Jul 2026, 01:45 UTC
The fire started on 18 July 2026 in San Cipirello, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 292 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 73th largest in Palermo since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 74 in Italy in 2026, of 232.
The power measured by the satellite is low (8.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only3days
18 Jul 2026 to 20 Jul 2026: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 20 Jul 2026, 01:45 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only18 Jul 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Jul 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only19
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 8 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 18 Jul 2026 – 20 Jul 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only57MW
Total radiative power on 19 July 2026; hotspots that day: 18.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 19 Jul 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model35.3FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 14.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 18 Jul 2026, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model38.4°C · 17% RH
High of 38.4 °C and minimum humidity of 17% on 20 July 2026; gusts of 38 km/h on 18 July 2026.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 18 Jul 2026 – 20 Jul 2026
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 292 ha
- Dates
- 18 Jul 2026 – 20 Jul 2026
- Name
- San Cipirello
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/san-cipirello-2026-07?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire san-cipirello-2026-07.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-18 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 23.7 | 23 | 13.2 | 38.2 | 0 | 35.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-07-19 | 18 | 57 | 37.7 | 23.5 | 15 | 10.2 | 34.9 | 0 | 39.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-07-20 | 1 | 3 | 38.4 | 25.7 | 17 | 11.9 | 35.3 | 0 | 41.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-07-21 | 0 | 0 | 38.6 | 25.3 | 16 | 9.3 | 31.3 | 0 | 39.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2026-07-22 | 0 | 0 | 35.3 | 24.1 | 23 | 16 | 43.2 | 0 | 45.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2026-07-23 | 0 | 0 | 31.9 | 22.4 | 29 | 10 | 33.5 | 0 | 34.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2026-07-24 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 20.9 | 39 | 20 | 49.7 | 0 | 35.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2026-07-25 | 0 | 0 | 28.8 | 18.8 | 35 | 10.1 | 25.6 | 0 | 28.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2026-07-26 | 0 | 0 | 32.7 | 22.3 | 31 | 25.8 | 63.7 | 0.1 | 42.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2026-07-27 | 0 | 0 | 30.4 | 22.6 | 42 | 14.2 | 36 | 0.1 | 30.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2026-07-28 | 0 | 0 | 26.8 | 20.8 | 65 | 12.2 | 37.8 | 4.6 | 4 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 292ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 3days
- 18 Jul 2026 – 20 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 19
- in a single hotspot: 8 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 30MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
18 Jul20 Jul
20 Jul 2026
How it evolved, day by day
19 Jul
20 Jul
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
38°high
38km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity
It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 28 Jul.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 139 ha in 2020, 120 ha in 2021, 85 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 212 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
134 ha reached on 19 Jul6.4 %
-
85 ha reached on 19 Jul0.2 %
-
San Giuseppe Jato 8,055 inhabitants · fire reached the centre72 ha reached on 19 Jul2.4 %
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 land64 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub26 %
- Agricultural areas7.8 %
- Artificial surfaces2.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 78 %
- ZEPA + LIC Monte Iato, Kumeta, Maganoce e Pizzo Parrino ITA020027
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Jul | 37.7 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Jul | 38.4 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Jul after | 38.6 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jul after | 35.3 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Jul after | 28.0 °C | 39 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Jul after | 28.8 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Jul after | 32.7 °C | 31 % | 64 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jul after | 30.4 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Jul after | 26.8 °C | 65 % | 38 km/h | 4.6 mm | Very low 4 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 35.3, a minimum humidity of 23% and 14 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 50.
FWI at the start
35.3
Minimum humidity
23 %
Days without rain
14
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · San Cipirello fire, July 2026
292 ha
3 days
FWI 35.3
Min. humidity 23 %
Sciara fire, August 2019
220 ha
3 days
FWI 35.4
Min. humidity 21 %
48 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sclafani Bagni fire, August 2021
394 ha
1 day
FWI 36.8
Min. humidity 24 %
57 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Marineo fire, June 2017
108 ha
1 day
FWI 36.5
Min. humidity 24 %
18 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Altofonte fire, August 2017
177 ha
5 days
FWI 38.0
Min. humidity 23 %
15 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Casteltermini fire, October 2023
369 ha
6 days
FWI 32.1
Min. humidity 23 %
65 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 17 Oct.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 200 ha
- median area
- 8 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.3 mm
- rain at the end (median; 21 of 50 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (292 ha against a median of 200 ha) and lasted 3 days, against 2 days.
In 29 of 50, 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 2.3 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
4.6 mmfirst rain
28 Jul8 days after it ended
38km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 20 Jul, and on 28 Jul 4.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 21 of 50, with a median of 2.3 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 11 Jul 2026
After · 27 Jul 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 21 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak45 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM10110 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
WHO 15
16 Jul18 Jul20 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 · 19Every 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
- 2,120 haMonreale29 July 2021 · 3 days · 6 km away
- 2,867 haMonreale29 July 2021 · 4 days · 12 km away
- 3,728 haMonreale24 July 2023 · 3 days · 16 km away
- 2,265 haCampofelice di FitaliaJuly 2026 · 2 days · 32 km away
- 5,542 haCustonaci20 July 2025 · 7 days · 40 km away
- 3,195 haCustonaciJuly 2017 · 2 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the San Cipirello fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (18 July 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 20 July 2026 (3 days from 18 July 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 292 hectares (2.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: San Cipirello (134 ha, 6.4 %); Monreale (85 ha, 0.2 %); San Giuseppe Jato (72 ha, 2.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire reached the centre of San Giuseppe Jato: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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: 50. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 200 ha; 8 % went past 1,000 ha. In 29 of 50, 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 2.3 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.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
- The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 19 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.
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.