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Thebes fire, July 2016 Θηβαίων · Thebes, Tanagra

Out · last detection 23 Jul 2016, 23:54 UTC

The fire started on 23 July 2016 in Thebes, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 446 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Central Greece since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 16 in Greece in 2016, of 33.

The power measured by the satellite is low (2.5 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
446ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
23 Jul 2016 – 23 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Jul
2016
Heat detections
1
in a single hotspot: 2 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jul23 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

23

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
37km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 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. Thebes Θηβαίων where it started
    435 ha reached on 23 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Tanagra Τανάγρας
    11 ha
    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 land81 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub12 %
  • Agricultural areas7.2 %

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)
23 Jul 31.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jul after 33.1 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Jul after 30.4 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jul after 29.4 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jul after 28.7 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jul after 30.1 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul after 30.4 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jul after 32.6 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul after 31.5 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Aug after 32.5 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Aug after 34.5 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2016
After · 30 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 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 guideline2 days
PM1035 µg/m³
212223242526
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 · 1Every 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 Thebes fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2016 and 23 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 446 hectares (4.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Thebes (435 ha, 0.5 %); Tanagra (11 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
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.