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Vovchansk fire, 10 May 2024 Вовчанський район · Vovchansk

Out · last measured on 11 May 2024

The fire started on 10 May 2024 in Vovchansk, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 162 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 275th largest in Kharkiv Oblast since 2016 (of 558 with a page). Number 1240 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sloviansk · 2024Kupiansk · 2025Vovchansk · 2024Vovchansk · 2024

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
162ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
10 May 2024 – 11 May 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 May
2024
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

18°high
48km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 17 May.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Vovchansk Вовчанський район 10.5 km from the centre where it started
    162 ha
    0.1 %

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 areas58 %
  • Other natural land38 %
  • Mixed forest4.4 %

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)
10 May 17.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 May 17.6 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
12 May after 13.7 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 May after 11.9 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
14 May after 12.9 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 May after 14.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 May after 16.9 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 May after 14.3 °C 54 % 37 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 16

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 21.0, a minimum humidity of 23% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2020: 22.

FWI at the start 21.0
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Sloviansk fire, April 2024
238 ha 3 days FWI 20.5 Min. humidity 23 % 144 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
170 ha
median area
5 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 22 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (162 ha against a median of 170 ha) and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.

In 8 of 22, 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

1.1 mmfirst rain
17 May6 days after it ended
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 11 May, and on 17 May 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 22, 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 2020.
  • 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 · 3 May 2024
After · 18 May 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 10 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 7 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak7 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM109 µg/m³
Optical depth0.41
8 May10 May12 May14 May
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vovchansk fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 10 May 2024 and 11 May 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 162 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vovchansk (162 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Vovchansk and came within 10.5 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 17.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
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 2020 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 170 ha; 5 % went past 1,000 ha. In 8 of 22, 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.

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
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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.