Sarandë fire, July 2020 Sarandë
The fire started on 31 July 2020 in Sarandë, Albania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 408 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 48th largest in Vlorë since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 10 in Albania in 2020, of 55.
The power measured by the satellite is low (13.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 408ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 31 Jul 2020 – 2 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 31 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 22
- in a single hotspot: 14 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 36MW
- 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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 19.1 mm on 5 Aug.
This area had burned before
40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 164 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Sarandë where it started408 ha reached on 31 Jul0.5 %
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 land67 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland17 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub15 %
- Broadleaved forest0.7 %
Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 5 %
- ZEPA ORI TSAMANTA, FILIATON, FARMAKOVOUNI, MEGALI RACHI GR2120009
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jul | 31.2 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Aug | 30.7 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Aug | 30.5 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 45 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 4 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 46 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Aug after | 24.4 °C | 67 % | 41 km/h | 19.1 mm | Very low 0 |
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 2 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 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 · 22Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,229 haSarandë6 August 2025 · 9 days · 17 km away
- 1,719 haSarandë11 July 2017 · 7 days · 17 km away
- 5,609 haGjirokastër8 August 2017 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 4,153 haDelvinë8 July 2024 · 6 days · 23 km away
- 1,772 haDelvinë19 July 2024 · 5 days · 28 km away
- 2,295 haCorfu Νότιας ΚέρκυραςJuly 2023 · 4 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sarandë fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 31 July 2020 and 2 August 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 408 hectares (4.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sarandë (408 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Albania (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: 128 · 112 · 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. 22 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic). 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.