Chios Fire: Smoke Travels 400km, Choking the Cyclades – Satellite Image Reveals Extent

A fire that has been raging since yesterday (June 22, 2025) on the island of Chios is causing irreversible ecological devastation. The island has been declared in a state of emergency with evacuations of villages taking place. Winds are carrying the smoke towards the Cyclades and Crete. The fire and its smoke are visible from the Meteosat-12 satellite. In an image posted today, Monday (June 23, 2025), by Kostas Lagouvardos, a meteorologist and research director at the National Observatory of Athens (meteo.gr), the smoke can be seen extending as far as Crete. ‘About 400 kilometers southwest of Chios, the smoke from the fire…’, Lagouvardos writes. ‘Impressive dispersion of smoke from the large fire in Chios, with the smoke reaching west of Chania by 14:30 on Monday, covering a distance of nearly 400 kilometers,’ he concludes in his post.