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Siculiana fire, 20 July 2016 Siculiana, Montallegro

Out · last measured on 21 Jul 2016

The fire started on 20 July 2016 in Siculiana, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 136 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 206th largest in Agrigento since 2016 (of 289 with a page). Number 59 in Italy in 2016, of 78.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cattolica Eraclea · 2025Cianciana · 2021Santa Elisabetta · 2026Bivona · 2026

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
136ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
20 Jul 2016 – 21 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Jul
2016
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

30°high
34km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Siculiana 4,161 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the centre where it started
    114 ha
    2.8 %
  2. Montallegro 2,377 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the centre
    22 ha
    0.8 %

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 land90 %
  • Agricultural areas10 %

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)
20 Jul 30.5 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jul 28.9 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Jul after 28.1 °C 56 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Jul after 29.0 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Jul after 29.8 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Jul after 25.2 °C 71 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Jul after 29.7 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Jul after 28.9 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Jul after 28.9 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Jul after 29.2 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Jul after 28.9 °C 51 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Jul after 30.3 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2016
After · 28 Jul 2016

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 23 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1037 µg/m³
18192021222324
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 Siculiana fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 20 July 2016 and 21 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 136 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Siculiana (114 ha, 2.8 %); Montallegro (22 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Siculiana and came within 3.6 km of its centre. 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 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
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 · 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

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.