Skip to content
worldfires
EL · Greece · –

Xylokastro fire, September 2024 Ξυλόκαστρο · Xylokastro-Evrostina

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2024, 23:53 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2024 in Xylokastro-Evrostina, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 7,771 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Peloponnese since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 2 in Greece in 2024, of 42.

Burnt area
7,771ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
29 Sept 2024 – 2 Oct 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Sept
2024
Heat detections
484
in a single hotspot: 203 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
2.8GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept2 Oct
1 Oct 2024

How it evolved, day by day

29 Sept 2024 · 1,057 MW · 9 30 Sept 2024 · 6,100 MW · 336 1 Oct 2024 · 1,111 MW · 139
29 Sept 30 Sept 1 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
50km/h · peak gust
42%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.7 mm on 5 Oct.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5 ha in 2022, 8 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.9% of the area of London (78 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Xylokastro-Evrostina Ξυλοκάστρου - Ευρωστίνης where it started
    7,792 ha reached on 29 Sept
    16 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland38 %
  • Agricultural areas30 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub16 %
  • Other natural land8.7 %
  • Coniferous forest6.7 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Fire in Xylokastro · Φωτιά στην Κορινθία · Rozena fire
Official area reported: 7,140 ha (the satellite measured 7,771 ha)

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
29 Sept 23.6 °C 42 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
30 Sept 19.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
1 Oct 19.5 °C 52 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
2 Oct 20.4 °C 52 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
3 Oct after 22.4 °C 50 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
4 Oct after 24.4 °C 46 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm Low 10
5 Oct after 20.3 °C 72 % 38 km/h 8.7 mm Very low 5

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 14.5, a minimum humidity of 42% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.

FWI at the start 14.5
Minimum humidity 42 %
Days without rain 7
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Andravida-Kyllini fire, October 2024
144 ha 2 days FWI 12.2 Min. humidity 44 % 103 km away, in 2024

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

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
214 ha
median area
8 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 26 had it)

It was 36.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 4 days, against 2 days.

None of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 12 of 26, 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 4.8 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

8.7 mmfirst rain
5 Oct3 days after it ended
50km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Oct, and on 5 Oct 8.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 26, with a median of 4.8 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 2016.
  • 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 · 22 Sept 2024
After · 9 Oct 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 2 October 2024 the air beside the fire reached 348 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 158: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak348 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10541 µg/m³
Optical depth2.91
27 Sept29 Sept1 Oct3 Oct5 Oct
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 · 484Every 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 Xylokastro fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 29 September 2024 and 2 October 2024: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 7,771 hectares (77.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Xylokastro-Evrostina (7,792 ha, 16 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.6 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 26. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 214 ha; 8 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 12 of 26, 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 4.8 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: 112 · 199 · 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 112 · 199.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 484 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
  • 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 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.