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IT · Italy ·

Sclafani Bagni fire, August 2021 Sclafani Bagni, Alia, Valledolmo

Out · last measured on 1 Aug 2021

The fire started on 1 August 2021 in Sclafani Bagni, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 394 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 52th largest in Palermo since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 67 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Gioiosa Marea · 2017Gratteri · 2023Aliminusa · 2023Polizzi Generosa · 2021

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
394ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
1 Aug 2021 – 1 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2021
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 67 ha in 2016, 21 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Sclafani Bagni 375 inhabitants · 7.4 km from the centre where it started
    354 ha
    2.6 %
  2. Alia 3,305 inhabitants · 6.1 km from the centre
    20 ha
    0.4 %
  3. Valledolmo 3,174 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the centre
    17 ha
    0.6 %
  4. Vallelunga Pratameno 3,113 inhabitants · 5.7 km from the centre
    3 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Agricultural areas98 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub1.8 %

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 23 % of the area in Italy

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
1 Aug 36.2 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.8 mm Extreme 50
2 Aug after 29.0 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
3 Aug after 30.3 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 21
4 Aug after 34.5 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Aug after 28.6 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Aug after 28.5 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Aug after 30.4 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Aug after 31.3 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Aug after 33.7 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Aug after 36.4 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Aug after 36.7 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 50.4, a minimum humidity of 24% and 13 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 31.

FWI at the start 50.4
Minimum humidity 24 %
Days without rain 13
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Gioiosa Marea fire, June 2017
126 ha 1 day FWI 50.8 Min. humidity 25 % 106 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 1 Jul.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
197 ha
median area
13 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 12 of 31 had it)

It was 2.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 1 day, against 2 days.

Only 8 of its 31 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 19 of 31, 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 2.9 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
42km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 1 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 31, with a median of 2.9 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 25 Jul 2021
After · 8 Aug 2021

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 · Copernicus

On 31 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1061 µg/m³
30 Jul1 Aug3 Aug
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sclafani Bagni fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 1 August 2021 and 1 August 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 394 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Sclafani Bagni (354 ha, 2.6 %); Alia (20 ha, 0.4 %); Valledolmo (17 ha, 0.6 %); Vallelunga Pratameno (3 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 2.9 km of the centre of Valledolmo, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
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: 31. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 197 ha; 13 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 8 of its 31 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 19 of 31, 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 2.9 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112 · 1515.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.