Sarno fire, 13 September 2020 Sarno, Castel San Giorgio, Siano
The fire started on 13 September 2020 in Sarno, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 109 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 33th largest in Salerno since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 119 in Italy in 2020, of 140.
The power measured by the satellite is low (9.9 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
- 109ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 13 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 17
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 60MW
- 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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 21 Sept.
This area had burned before
17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14 ha in 2017, 9 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
82 ha reached on 13 Sept2.0 %
-
Castel San Giorgio 13,688 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town18 ha reached on 14 Sept1.3 %
-
Siano 9,407 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town9 ha1.1 %
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 forest70 %
- Other natural land15 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland13 %
- Agricultural areas1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Sept | 29.2 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Sept | 29.8 °C | 50 % | 28 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 15 Sept | 28.2 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 9 |
| 16 Sept after | 27.7 °C | 53 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 17 Sept after | 26.9 °C | 56 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 54 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 19 Sept after | 27.4 °C | 57 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 20 Sept after | 25.6 °C | 68 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Sept after | 24.3 °C | 79 % | 33 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 3 |
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 11 September 2020 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 17Every 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 Sarno fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 13 September 2020 and 15 September 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 109 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sarno (82 ha, 2.0 %); Castel San Giorgio (18 ha, 1.3 %); Siano (9 ha, 1.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.0 km of Siano. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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.