How long did the Zhytomyr fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 26 August 2023 and 31 August 2023: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,858 hectares (18.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zhytomyr (1,852 ha, 1.0 %); Chudniv (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 14.0 km of Zhytomyr. 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 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

UA · Ukraine · 2023-08-26 → 2023-08-31

Zhytomyr fire, August 2023 Житомирський район · Zhytomyr, Chudniv

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2023, 11:00 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2023 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,858 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Zhytomyr Oblast since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 9 in Ukraine in 2023, of 491.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 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: 1,858ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 6days; 26 Aug 2023 – 31 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 26 Aug; 2023
Heat detections: 3; in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 39MW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Aug 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2630

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

48km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 1 Sept.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,636 ha in 2022.

1,636 ha Zhytomyr fire, February 2022 3,570 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Zhytomyr Житомирський район 71,532 inhabitants · 14.0 km from the town where it started

1,852 ha reached on 26 Aug

1.0 %
Chudniv Чуднівський район 34,351 inhabitants · 29.3 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

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

Other natural land77 %
Agricultural areas19 %
Mixed forest3.2 %

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)
26 Aug	30.7 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.5 mm	High 23
27 Aug	30.2 °C	51 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
28 Aug	34.4 °C	30 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
29 Aug	34.5 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
30 Aug	29.0 °C	46 %	48 km/h	9.0 mm	Very low 2
31 Aug	26.0 °C	48 %	33 km/h	0.4 mm	Low 9
1 Sept after	23.2 °C	47 %	31 km/h	5.1 mm	Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Aug 2023

After · 7 Sept 2023

Before After

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 3 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak36 µg/m³

Days over the guideline3 days

PM1040 µg/m³

Optical depth0.52

WHO 15

2425262728293031123

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 · 3Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Zhytomyr fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 26 August 2023 and 31 August 2023: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,858 hectares (18.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zhytomyr (1,852 ha, 1.0 %); Chudniv (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 14.0 km of Zhytomyr. 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 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

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

ДСНС · State Emergency Service ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 101 · 112.

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.

Where it burned