Burned area
satellite only178ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 30 June 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
IT · Italy · –
Sessa Aurunca fire, June 2022 Mondragone, Sessa Aurunca
Out · last detection 29 Jun 2022, 12:44 UTC
The fire started on 28 June 2022 in Sessa Aurunca, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 178 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 25th largest in Caserta since 2016 (of 69 with a page). Number 84 in Italy in 2022, of 161.
The power measured by the satellite is low (4.5 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 only2days
28 Jun 2022 to 29 Jun 2022: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 29 Jun 2022, 12:44 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 only28 Jun 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 28 Jun 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only5
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 5 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 28 Jun 2022 – 29 Jun 2022
+− 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 only9MW
Total radiative power on 29 June 2022; hotspots that day: 5.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 29 Jun 2022
+− 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
model50.5FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 18.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 28 Jun 2022, 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
model36.6°C · 22% RH
High of 36.6 °C and minimum humidity of 22% on 28 June 2022; gusts of 39 km/h on 29 June 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 28 Jun 2022 – 29 Jun 2022
- 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 GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· 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
- 178 ha
- Dates
- 28 Jun 2022 – 29 Jun 2022
- Name
- Sessa Aurunca
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/sessa-aurunca-2022-06?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 sessa-aurunca-2022-06.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-06-28 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 21.8 | 22 | 15.4 | 33.1 | 0 | 50.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-06-29 | 5 | 9 | 29.8 | 20.9 | 53 | 16.7 | 39.2 | 0.3 | 29.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-06-30 | 0 | 0 | 30.1 | 20.1 | 54 | 12.6 | 32 | 0 | 26.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-01 | 0 | 0 | 31.9 | 19.8 | 43 | 18.3 | 41 | 0 | 36.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-02 | 0 | 0 | 32.6 | 20.5 | 38 | 14.1 | 35.3 | 0 | 30.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-03 | 0 | 0 | 33.1 | 22.1 | 38 | 13 | 35.6 | 0 | 31.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-04 | 0 | 0 | 32.9 | 21.6 | 42 | 13.4 | 36.7 | 0 | 29.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-05 | 0 | 0 | 31.1 | 22.1 | 47 | 15.2 | 39.2 | 0 | 36.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-06 | 0 | 0 | 32.5 | 20.8 | 49 | 11.1 | 34.2 | 0 | 33.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-07 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 20.9 | 49 | 13.6 | 32 | 0.7 | 35.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2022-07-08 | 0 | 0 | 28.8 | 18.9 | 31 | 15.1 | 38.9 | 3.5 | 12.6 | moderado | 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), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 178ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 28 Jun 2022 – 29 Jun 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 28 Jun
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 5 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 9MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
28 Jun29 Jun
How it evolved, day by day
29 Jun 2022 · 9 MW · 5
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
37°high
39km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity
It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 8 Jul.
This area had burned before
64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 101 ha in 2017, 59 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 114 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mondragone 28,622 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the centre145 ha reached on 29 Jun2.6 %
-
33 ha reached on 29 Jun0.2 %
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 land84 %
- Agricultural areas8.9 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland7.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 80 %
- LIC Monte Massico IT8010015
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area0.35 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.35 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jun | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 29 Jun | 29.8 °C | 53 % | 39 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Jun after | 30.1 °C | 54 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 43 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Jul after | 32.6 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 3 Jul after | 33.1 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Jul after | 32.9 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Jul after | 31.1 °C | 47 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Jul after | 32.5 °C | 49 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Jul after | 30.3 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Jul after | 28.8 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 3.5 mm | Moderate 13 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 50.5, a minimum humidity of 22% and 18 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.
FWI at the start
50.5
Minimum humidity
22 %
Days without rain
18
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Sessa Aurunca fire, June 2022
178 ha
2 days
FWI 50.5
Min. humidity 22 %
Tricarico fire, June 2024
165 ha
2 days
FWI 51.9
Min. humidity 21 %
200 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
San Marco in Lamis fire, July 2023
630 ha
1 day
FWI 51.4
Min. humidity 21 %
158 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 21 Jul.
Manfredonia fire, July 2025
804 ha
5 days
FWI 51.3
Min. humidity 23 %
172 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 26 Jul.
Santa Maria del Cedro fire, July 2017
124 ha
2 days
FWI 49.6
Min. humidity 20 %
226 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 14 Jul.
Maratea fire, July 2017
218 ha
2 days
FWI 47.9
Min. humidity 21 %
197 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.5 mm on 15 Jul.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 218 ha
- median area
- 0 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 13 of 19 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (178 ha against a median of 218 ha) and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.
In 6 of 19, 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 1.8 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
3.5 mmfirst rain
8 Jul9 days after it ended
39km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 29 Jun, and on 8 Jul 3.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 19, with a median of 1.8 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 · 21 Jun 2022
After · 6 Jul 2022
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.
Detections table · 5Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sessa Aurunca fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 28 June 2022 and 29 June 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 178 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mondragone (145 ha, 2.6 %); Sessa Aurunca (33 ha, 0.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 3.2 km of the centre of Mondragone, 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 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 39 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: 19. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 218 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. In 6 of 19, 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 1.8 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.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 5 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.