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Zmiiv fire, 2 September 2024 Зміївський район · Zmiiv

Out · last measured on 7 Sept 2024

The fire started on 2 September 2024 in Zmiiv, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 212 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 185th largest in Kharkiv Oblast since 2016 (of 558 with a page). Number 888 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kupiansk · 2024Svatove · 2024Zmiiv · 2024Zmiiv · 2025

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
212ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
2 Sept 2024 – 7 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
2 Sept
2024
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

32°high
56km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 12 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. Zmiiv Зміївський район 72,587 inhabitants · 14.4 km from the centre where it started
    211 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

  • Mixed forest81 %
  • Other natural land14 %
  • Coniferous forest2.4 %
  • Broadleaved forest2.4 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Strong wind: 21 % of the area in Ukraine

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Sept 32.3 °C 20 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
3 Sept 25.4 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 46
4 Sept 29.1 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Sept 28.9 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 49
6 Sept 26.4 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept 25.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept after 26.2 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Sept after 24.5 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept after 24.9 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.7 mm High 25
11 Sept after 27.8 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
12 Sept after 30.5 °C 24 % 46 km/h 1.0 mm Very high 40

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 61.7, a minimum humidity of 20% and 20 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2020: 19.

FWI at the start 61.7
Minimum humidity 20 %
Days without rain 20
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Kupiansk fire, September 2024
557 ha 3 days FWI 63.6 Min. humidity 20 % 92 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
139 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 2 of 19 had it)

It was 1.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 6 days, against 2 days.

Only 7 of its 19 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 17 of 19, 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 3.0 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

1.0 mmfirst rain
12 Sept5 days after it ended
56km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 7 Sept, and on 12 Sept 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 2 of 19, with a median of 3.0 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 · 26 Aug 2024
After · 14 Sept 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 4 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM10152 µg/m³
Optical depth0.63
3 Sept5 Sept7 Sept9 Sept
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 Zmiiv fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 September 2024 to 7 September 2024 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 September 2024 to 7 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 212 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Zmiiv (211 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Zmiiv and came within 14.4 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 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class Extreme.
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: 19. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 139 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 7 of its 19 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 17 of 19, 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 3.0 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 September 2024 to 7 September 2024. 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.