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UA · Ukraine · –

Tomakivka fire, 23 August 2024 Томаківський район · Tomakivka

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2024, 23:44 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2024 in Tomakivka, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 215 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 72th largest in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast since 2016 (of 183 with a page). Number 870 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.5 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
215ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
23 Aug 2024 – 26 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Aug
2024
Heat detections
10
in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
23MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

25 Aug 2024 · 23 MW · 10

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
35km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 3 Sept.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Tomakivka Томаківський район 24,658 inhabitants · 17.1 km from the centre where it started
    214 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.2 %

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

  • Agricultural areas72 %
  • Other natural land28 %

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
23 Aug 33.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Aug 33.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 50
25 Aug 34.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Aug 34.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Aug after 29.6 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug after 32.8 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
29 Aug after 31.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 46
30 Aug after 30.7 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Very extreme 78
31 Aug after 31.4 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
1 Sept after 31.3 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 62
2 Sept after 31.7 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Sept after 25.1 °C 40 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm High 31

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 39.0, a minimum humidity of 32% and 17 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2021: 56.

FWI at the start 39.0
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 17
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Kamianka Dniprovska fire, June 2026
795 ha 15 days FWI 38.4 Min. humidity 32 % 28 km away, in 2026

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 14 Jul.

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
225 ha
median area
2 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 41 of 56 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (215 ha against a median of 225 ha) and lasted 4 days, against 4 days.

In 15 of 56, 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

1.0 mmfirst rain
3 Sept8 days after it ended
35km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Aug, and on 3 Sept 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 41 of 56, 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 2021.
  • 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 · 16 Aug 2024
After · 2 Sept 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 27 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak21 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1070 µg/m³
Optical depth0.50
23 Aug25 Aug27 Aug29 Aug
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 · 10Every 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 Tomakivka fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 August 2024 to 26 August 2024 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 August 2024 to 26 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 215 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tomakivka (214 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Tomakivka and came within 17.1 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 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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 2021 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 56. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 225 ha; 2 % went past 1,000 ha. In 15 of 56, 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 25 August 2024 to 26 August 2024. 10 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.