Burned area
satellite only123ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BA · Bosnia & Herzegovina ·
Banja Luka fire, March 2020 Banja Luka
Out · last detection 17 Mar 2020, 11:41 UTC
The fire started on 17 March 2020 in Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 123 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 335th largest in Republika Srpska since 2016 (of 391 with a page). Number 156 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2020, of 183.
The power measured by the satellite is low (4.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only1day
17 Mar 2020 to 17 Mar 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 17 Mar 2020, 11:41 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only17 Mar 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 17 Mar 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only4
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 4 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 17 Mar 2020 – 17 Mar 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only12MW
Total radiative power on 17 March 2020; hotspots that day: 4.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 17 Mar 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model6.6FWI · low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 17 Mar 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model18.2°C · 20% RH
High of 18.2 °C and minimum humidity of 20% on 17 March 2020; gusts of 24 km/h on 17 March 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 17 Mar 2020 – 17 Mar 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 123 ha
- Dates
- 17 Mar 2020 – 17 Mar 2020
- Name
- Banja Luka
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/banja-luka-2020-03?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire banja-luka-2020-03.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-03-17 | 4 | 12 | 18.2 | -1.1 | 20 | 8.9 | 24.5 | 0 | 6.6 | bajo | 1 |
| 2020-03-18 | 0 | 0 | 16.7 | 4.2 | 43 | 11.2 | 31.7 | 0 | 6.4 | bajo | 0 |
| 2020-03-19 | 0 | 0 | 19.2 | 0.4 | 23 | 7.6 | 18.7 | 0 | 7.3 | bajo | 0 |
| 2020-03-20 | 0 | 0 | 21.2 | 0.5 | 24 | 6.3 | 14.8 | 0 | 8 | bajo | 0 |
| 2020-03-21 | 0 | 0 | 18.6 | 3.1 | 30 | 11.9 | 31.7 | 0 | 10 | bajo | 0 |
| 2020-03-22 | 0 | 0 | 6.5 | 1 | 58 | 13.9 | 29.9 | 6.5 | 0.1 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 123ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 17 Mar 2020 – 17 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 4 MW
- Danger at start
- 7
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 12MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
17 Mar17 Mar
How it evolved, day by day
17 Mar 2020 · 12 MW · 4
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
18°high
24km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.5 mm on 22 Mar.
This area had burned before
26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 32 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
Banja Luka where it started123 ha reached on 17 Mar0.1 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland61 %
- Agricultural areas22 %
- Broadleaved forest16 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar | 18.2 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 18 Mar after | 16.7 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 19 Mar after | 19.2 °C | 23 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 20 Mar after | 21.2 °C | 24 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 21 Mar after | 18.6 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 22 Mar after | 6.5 °C | 58 % | 30 km/h | 6.5 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 6.6, a minimum humidity of 20% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.
FWI at the start
6.6
Minimum humidity
20 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Banja Luka fire, March 2020
123 ha
1 day
FWI 6.6
Min. humidity 20 %
Sanski Most fire, February 2019
194 ha
4 days
FWI 5.5
Min. humidity 21 %
56 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 5 Mar.
Bosanski Petrovac fire, March 2025
455 ha
2 days
FWI 5.5
Min. humidity 19 %
71 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 10 Mar.
Berkovići fire, April 2020
539 ha
4 days
FWI 6.9
Min. humidity 20 %
191 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 12.4 mm on 14 Apr.
Konjic fire, April 2020
109 ha
2 days
FWI 8.1
Min. humidity 20 %
120 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 13.2 mm on 14 Apr.
Općina Gračac fire, April 2020
119 ha
3 days
FWI 8.8
Min. humidity 20 %
88 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 17.1 mm on 14 Apr.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 183 ha
- median area
- 0 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 5.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 15 of 15 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (123 ha against a median of 183 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 3 days.
All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 5.5 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
6.5 mmfirst rain
22 Mar5 days after it ended
24km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 Mar, and on 22 Mar 6.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 15, with a median of 5.5 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 2016.
- 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 10 Mar 2020
After · 24 Mar 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 4Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Banja Luka fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 17 March 2020 and 17 March 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 123 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Banja Luka (123 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 18.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 7, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bosnia & Herzegovina (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 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 183 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 5.5 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: 123 · 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 4 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 (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.