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Sortino fire, July 2023 Sortino, Ferla

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2023, 01:17 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2023 in Sortino, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,048 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Siracusa since 2016 (of 57 with a page). Number 16 in Italy in 2023, of 207.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.3 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
1,048ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
25 Jul 2023 – 29 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
25 Jul
2023
Heat detections
33
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
88
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
364MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Jul 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul29 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2629

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
59km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Sortino 8,234 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town where it started
    1,049 ha reached on 26 Jul
    11 %
  2. Ferla 2,305 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town
    1 ha reached on 26 Jul
    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 land41 %
  • Coniferous forest39 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub16 %
  • Broadleaved forest2.8 %
  • Agricultural areas0.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 68 %

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)
25 Jul 41.6 °C 10 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 88
26 Jul 36.6 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.6 mm Extreme 59
27 Jul 29.6 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jul 33.9 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jul 32.1 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Jul after 34.0 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jul after 35.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Aug after 32.6 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Aug after 33.3 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Aug after 32.9 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Aug after 35.7 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Aug after 30.8 °C 25 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
6 Aug after 31.5 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug after 30.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Aug after 27.2 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2023
After · 5 Aug 2023

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 26 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1068 µg/m³
Optical depth0.61
2324252627282930311
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 · 33Every 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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sortino fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2023 and 29 July 2023: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,048 hectares (10.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sortino (1,049 ha, 11 %); Ferla (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.5 km of Sortino. 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 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 88, class Very 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.

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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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.