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Vizzini fire, 30 July 2021 Vizzini, Buccheri

Out · last detection 1 Aug 2021, 23:48 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2021 in Vizzini, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 226 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Catania since 2016 (of 76 with a page). Number 133 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

Burnt area
226ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
30 Jul 2021 – 2 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
30 Jul
2021
Heat detections
6
in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
214MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul2 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

30311

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
49km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 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. Vizzini 5,702 inhabitants · 7.9 km from the town where it started
    147 ha reached on 30 Jul
    1.2 %
  2. Buccheri 1,729 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    80 ha reached on 31 Jul
    1.4 %

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

  • Agricultural areas62 %
  • Coniferous forest21 %
  • Other natural land12 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub5.4 %

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)
30 Jul 35.0 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Jul 35.1 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Aug 36.8 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
2 Aug 36.4 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Aug after 35.1 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Aug after 37.3 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Aug after 34.2 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Aug after 31.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug after 30.9 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug after 32.8 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug after 34.3 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Aug after 38.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Aug after 39.8 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 53
12 Aug after 35.0 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2021
After · 9 Aug 2021

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 6Every 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 Vizzini fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 30 July 2021 and 2 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 226 hectares (2.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vizzini (147 ha, 1.2 %); Buccheri (80 ha, 1.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Buccheri. 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 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class 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
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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.