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Thassou fire, 10 September 2016 Θάσου · Thassou

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2016, 10:00 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2016 in Thassou, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 4,079 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 2 in Greece in 2016, of 33.

Burnt area
4,079ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
10 Sept 2016 – 14 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Sept
2016
Heat detections
186
in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
4.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
39km/h · peak gust
50%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 15 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Thassou Θάσου where it started
    4,085 ha reached on 10 Sept
    11 %

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 land67 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland21 %
  • Agricultural areas9.0 %
  • Coniferous forest2.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 17 %

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)
10 Sept 26.1 °C 50 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Sept 24.0 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Sept 23.2 °C 54 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Sept 22.5 °C 52 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
14 Sept 24.2 °C 56 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Sept after 23.4 °C 59 % 19 km/h 1.0 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2016
After · 21 Sept 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 10 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 312 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 96: 6.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak312 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM10533 µg/m³
891011121314151617
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 · 186Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Thassou fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 10 September 2016 and 14 September 2016: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 4,079 hectares (40.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Thassou (4,085 ha, 11 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199

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 · 199.

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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.