Burned area
satellite only474ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 16 March 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
RO · Romania · –
Sulina fire, 20 February 2023 Sulina
Out · last detection 21 Feb 2023, 10:21 UTC
The fire started on 20 February 2023 in Sulina, Romania, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 474 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
This record is fire in the reed beds of the Danube Delta, not a forest fire. Thousands of hectares of reed burn in the delta every year, mostly between January and April, and many of these burns are deliberate. That is why it is left out of the fire rankings.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Izmali · 2026Izmali · 2025Sulina · 2019Sulina · 2022
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
20 Feb 2023 to 21 Feb 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 21 Feb 2023, 10:21 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 only20 Feb 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 20 Feb 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only9
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 142 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 20 Feb 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
+− 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 only471MW
Total radiative power on 20 February 2023; hotspots that day: 5.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 20 Feb 2023
+− 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
model5.0FWI · very low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 11.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 20 Feb 2023, 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
model14.0°C · 49% RH
High of 14.0 °C and minimum humidity of 49% on 21 February 2023; gusts of 45 km/h on 20 February 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 20 Feb 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
- 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
- 474 ha
- Dates
- 20 Feb 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
- Name
- Sulina
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/sulina-2023-02-2?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 sulina-2023-02-2.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-02-20 | 5 | 471 | 8.1 | 4.1 | 46 | 29.6 | 45 | 0.5 | 5 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2023-02-21 | 4 | 17 | 14 | 5.4 | 49 | 30.2 | 45 | 0 | 8 | bajo | 1 |
| 2023-02-22 | 0 | 0 | 9.4 | 5.7 | 57 | 9.2 | 19.8 | 0 | 2.5 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2023-02-23 | 0 | 0 | 5.6 | 2.4 | 57 | 22.1 | 32.8 | 0 | 6 | bajo | 0 |
| 2023-02-24 | 0 | 0 | 6.6 | 2.6 | 70 | 27 | 43.2 | 0.8 | 5.8 | bajo | 0 |
| 2023-02-25 | 0 | 0 | 11.3 | 5.1 | 71 | 29.5 | 42.5 | 0 | 4.1 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2023-02-26 | 0 | 0 | 13.2 | 8.3 | 67 | 32.4 | 52.6 | 1.3 | 4.1 | muy_bajo | 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
- 474ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 20 Feb 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 9
- in a single hotspot: 142 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 244MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
20 Feb21 Feb
21 Feb 2023
How it evolved, day by day
20 Feb
21 Feb
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
14°high
45km/h · peak gust
46%lowest humidity
It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 26 Feb.
This area had burned before
50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4 ha in 2017, 143 ha in 2019, 64 ha in 2020, 111 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 238 ha that had burned before.
- 135 ha Sulina fire, May 2019 163 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 111 ha Sulina fire, January 2022 3,176 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 57 ha Sulina fire, January 2020 506 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Sulina fire, February 2019 195 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Sulina fire, February 2020 790 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Sulina fire, March 2017 313 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
473 ha reached on 20 Feb1.4 %
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 land98 %
- Other land cover1.9 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Delta Dunării ROSCI0065
- ZEPA Delta Dunării și Complexul Razim - Sinoie ROSPA0031
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 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Feb | 8.1 °C | 46 % | 45 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 5 |
| 21 Feb | 14.0 °C | 49 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 22 Feb after | 9.4 °C | 57 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 23 Feb after | 5.6 °C | 57 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 24 Feb after | 6.6 °C | 70 % | 43 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 6 |
| 25 Feb after | 11.3 °C | 71 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 26 Feb after | 13.2 °C | 67 % | 53 km/h | 1.3 mm | Very low 4 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 5.0, a minimum humidity of 46% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2019: 26.
FWI at the start
5.0
Minimum humidity
46 %
Days without rain
11
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Sulina fire, 20 February 2023
474 ha
2 days
FWI 5.0
Min. humidity 46 %
Izmali fire, March 2026
169 ha
6 days
FWI 2.4
Min. humidity 46 %
66 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Izmali fire, February 2025
433 ha
3 days
FWI 4.4
Min. humidity 46 %
54 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 1 Mar.
Reni fire, January 2022
184 ha
4 days
FWI 3.2
Min. humidity 44 %
88 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 25 Jan.
Holo Prystan fire, April 2022
6,113 ha
7 days
FWI 6.2
Min. humidity 46 %
240 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 4 May.
Izmali fire, January 2022
115 ha
1 day
FWI 1.4
Min. humidity 44 %
55 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 24 Jan.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 247 ha
- median area
- 8 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 20 of 26 had it)
It was 1.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.
Only 4 of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 26, 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 2.4 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
1.3 mmfirst rain
26 Feb5 days after it ended
45km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 21 Feb, and on 26 Feb 1.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 26, with a median of 2.4 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 2019.
- 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 · 13 Feb 2023
After · 28 Feb 2023
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 18 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 39 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak39 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1041 µg/m³
Optical depth0.71
WHO 15
18 Feb20 Feb22 Feb24 Feb
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 · 9Every 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
- 7,618 haSulina14 February 2025 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 10,843 haSfântu GheorgheJanuary 2025 · 5 days · 14 km away
- 7,692 haSulina20 March 2022 · 9 days · 15 km away
- 9,392 haSfântu Gheorghe18 March 2022 · 5 days · 20 km away
- 10,396 haSfântu Gheorghe10 March 2019 · 8 days · 24 km away
- 10,147 haSfântu Gheorghe18 February 2025 · 6 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sulina fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 February 2023 to 21 February 2023 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 February 2023 to 20 February 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 474 hectares (4.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sulina (473 ha, 1.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Sulina and came within 10.2 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 14.0 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Romania (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 2019 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 26. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 247 ha; 8 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 4 of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 26, 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 2.4 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 · 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 February 2023 to 20 February 2023. 9 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
- Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.
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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.