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UA · Ukraine · –

Sorokyne fire, June 2024 Sorokyne

Out · last detection 7 Jun 2024, 23:24 UTC

The fire started on 3 June 2024 in Sorokyne, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 201 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 443th largest in Luhansk Oblast since 2016 (of 909 with a page). Number 956 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

The power measured by the satellite is low (6.1 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
201ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
3 Jun 2024 – 7 Jun 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
3 Jun
2024
Heat detections
7
in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
6MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jun7 Jun
7 Jun 2024

How it evolved, day by day

3 Jun 2024 · 12 MW · 2 6 Jun 2024 · 1 MW · 2 7 Jun 2024 · 5 MW · 3
3 Jun 6 Jun 7 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 12 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Sorokyne where it started
    201 ha reached on 3 Jun
    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

  • Other natural land67 %
  • Agricultural areas31 %
  • Mixed forest2.1 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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: 28 % of the area in Ukraine

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Jun 31.9 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Jun 33.3 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 50
5 Jun 32.2 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
6 Jun 32.2 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jun 28.3 °C 37 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 60
8 Jun after 29.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Jun after 29.4 °C 32 % 17 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
10 Jun after 31.8 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jun after 33.9 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jun after 32.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 1.1 mm Extreme 54

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 58.1, a minimum humidity of 32% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 58.1
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Svatove fire, August 2024
485 ha 3 days FWI 58.2 Min. humidity 32 % 167 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
218 ha
median area
10 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 20 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (201 ha against a median of 218 ha) and lasted 5 days, against 2 days.

In 10 of 30, 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 2.6 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

1.1 mmfirst rain
12 Jun5 days after it ended
52km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 7 Jun, and on 12 Jun 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 30, with a median of 2.6 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 · 27 May 2024
After · 14 Jun 2024

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 1 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1033 µg/m³
Optical depth0.39
1 Jun3 Jun5 Jun7 Jun9 Jun
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 · 7Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sorokyne fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 June 2024 to 7 June 2024 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 June 2024 to 5 June 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 201 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sorokyne (201 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (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: 30. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 218 ha; 10 % went past 1,000 ha. In 10 of 30, 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 2.6 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: 101 · 112 · 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.

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 101 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 June 2024 to 5 June 2024. 7 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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.