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Zakynthos fire, 11 August 2017 δημοτική ενότητα Ζακυνθίων · Zakynthos

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2017, 00:37 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2017 in Zakynthos, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 312 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 10th largest in Ionian Islands since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 13 in Greece in 2017, of 32.

Burnt area
312ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
11 Aug 2017 – 14 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Aug
2017
Heat detections
22
in a single hotspot: 151 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Energy released
721MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

11121315

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
61km/h · peak gust
61%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 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. Zakynthos δημοτική ενότητα Ζακυνθίων 15,725 inhabitants where it started
    314 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.8 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub96 %
  • Agricultural areas3.8 %

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)
11 Aug 26.4 °C 72 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
12 Aug 25.0 °C 62 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
13 Aug 24.4 °C 61 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
14 Aug 23.7 °C 63 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Aug after 23.5 °C 74 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
16 Aug after 23.7 °C 77 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
17 Aug after 24.4 °C 72 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
18 Aug after 25.0 °C 64 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
19 Aug after 24.8 °C 65 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
20 Aug after 23.9 °C 74 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
21 Aug after 23.2 °C 78 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
22 Aug after 23.1 °C 72 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Aug after 22.9 °C 70 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
24 Aug after 23.0 °C 71 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2017
After · 21 Aug 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 12 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak40 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1052 µg/m³
9101112131415161718
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 · 22Every 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 Zakynthos fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 11 August 2017 and 14 August 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 312 hectares (3.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Zakynthos (314 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.4 °C, humidity dropped to 61 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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.