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West Achaea fire, September 2017 Δυτικής Αχαΐας · West Achaea

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2017, 00:12 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2017 in West Achaea, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,483 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Western Greece since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 5 in Greece in 2017, of 32.

The power measured by the satellite is low (3.0 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
1,483ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
12 Sept 2017 – 12 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2017
Heat detections
12
in a single hotspot: 3 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
21MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
55km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 20 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. West Achaea Δυτικής Αχαΐας where it started
    1,485 ha reached on 12 Sept
    2.2 %

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

  • Coniferous forest42 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland23 %
  • Agricultural areas18 %
  • Other natural land8.8 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub8.7 %

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)
12 Sept 27.5 °C 38 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 28.2 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
14 Sept after 28.2 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Sept after 27.2 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Sept after 28.3 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Sept after 29.8 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Sept after 31.2 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Sept after 31.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Sept after 25.7 °C 50 % 54 km/h 5.1 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2017
After · 19 Sept 2017

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 11 September 2017 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1067 µg/m³
101112131415
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 · 12Every 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 West Achaea fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 September 2017 and 12 September 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,483 hectares (14.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered West Achaea (1,485 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.