How long did the Serres fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2024 and 10 August 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,575 hectares (15.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Serres (1,397 ha, 3.1 %); Prosotsanis (181 ha, 0.4 %); Kato Nevrokopiou (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 23.0 km of Prosotsanis. 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 23.3 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, class Very low.

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.

EL · Greece · 2024-08-09 → 2024-08-10

Serres fire, August 2024 Δημοτική Ενότητα Σερρών · Serres, Prosotsanis, Kato Nevrokopiou

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2024, 12:31 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2024 in Serres, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,575 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Central Macedonia since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 5 in Greece in 2024, of 42.

Burnt area: 1,575ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 9 Aug 2024 – 10 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 9 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 157; in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start: 0; Very low · FWI index
Energy released: 456MW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Aug 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug10 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

91011

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

23°high

32km/h · peak gust

32%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 15 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Serres Δημοτική Ενότητα Σερρών 54,461 inhabitants where it started

1,397 ha reached on 9 Aug

3.1 %
Prosotsanis δημοτική ενότητα Προσοτσάνης 11,148 inhabitants · 23.0 km from the town

181 ha reached on 13 Aug

0.4 %
Kato Nevrokopiou Κάτω Νευροκοπίου

0 ha

0.0 %

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

Other natural land75 %
Coniferous forest18 %
Mixed forest6.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

ZEPA KOILADA TIMIOU PRODROMOU-MENOIKION GR1260009
LIC KORYFES OROUS MENOIKION – OROS KOUSKOURAS - YPSOMA -SPILAIO PELADE GR1260004

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)
9 Aug	22.6 °C	51 %	29 km/h	12.1 mm	Very low 0
10 Aug	23.3 °C	32 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
11 Aug after	24.7 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
12 Aug after	25.1 °C	37 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
13 Aug after	25.7 °C	43 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
14 Aug after	26.6 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
15 Aug after	25.0 °C	37 %	30 km/h	1.4 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Aug 2024

After · 17 Aug 2024

Before After

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 13 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1022 µg/m³

Optical depth0.59

WHO 15

789101112131415161718

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 · 157Every 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

All fires in Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Serres fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2024 and 10 August 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,575 hectares (15.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Serres (1,397 ha, 3.1 %); Prosotsanis (181 ha, 0.4 %); Kato Nevrokopiou (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 23.0 km of Prosotsanis. 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 23.3 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, class Very low.
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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 · 199.

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.

Where it burned