Dadia-Evros Megafire 2023 — Burn Severity Map & Satellite Analysis

About this fire

The Dadia-Evros megafire was the largest single wildfire ever recorded in the European Union. Ignited on 19 August 2023 near Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece, it merged with multiple smaller fires and swept through the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park — one of Europe’s most important protected areas for birds of prey, home to all of Europe’s vulture species.

The fire burned for over three weeks across nearly 94,000 hectares of oak, beech, and pine forest. It killed at least 20 people, destroyed homes and livelihoods across dozens of villages, and caused irreversible ecological damage to a Natura 2000 site that had taken decades of conservation investment to build. The carbon released by the fire exceeded Greece’s annual fossil fuel emissions for that year. The megafire was driven by months of drought, extreme heat, and dry winds — the same climate-change-fuelled conditions that made 2023 a record year for Greek wildfires.

Timeline & severity

Date	Event
19 Aug 2023	Fire ignites near Alexandroupolis, merging with multiple smaller fires
20–25 Aug 2023	Rapid spread through Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli National Park during extreme heat and wind
26–29 Aug 2023	EU’s largest-ever aerial firefighting operation deployed; fire eventually contained
Post-fire	94,000 ha burned — the EU’s largest single wildfire on record

The fire’s severity was extreme across much of the burn scar. Ecologists expect the Dadia forest to take 50–80 years to recover to its pre-fire state — if climate conditions allow it to recover at all.

Satellite analysis

This analysis uses dNBR (differenced Normalized Burn Ratio) computed from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to quantify burn severity across the 94,000-hectare scar. The severity map reveals where the fire burned hottest and where the forest canopy survived — the first step in prioritising restoration and habitat recovery efforts.

dNBR captures the dramatic reversal in reflectance patterns after a fire: healthy vegetation reflects strongly in near-infrared and absorbs shortwave-infrared, while burned areas do the opposite. By comparing pre-fire and post-fire NBR values, dNBR classifies every pixel on the USGS standard severity scale — from unburned through to stand-replacing high-severity fire.

Read our full guide: What is NBR? →

Recovery outlook

At 94,000 hectares, this is one of the most extensive burn scars ever analysed from space in Europe. Recovery in the Dadia forest is expected to take decades — oak and beech regeneration is slow, and the protected bird-of-prey habitat that was lost will require active restoration. The first priority is erosion control and identifying surviving canopy patches where natural regeneration can be jump-started. Satellite monitoring over the coming years will be essential to track regrowth and guide intervention.

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