Berkovići fire, 26 July 2024 Berkovići, Stolac
The fire started on 26 July 2024 in Berkovići, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 532 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 95th largest in Republika Srpska since 2016 (of 391 with a page). Number 18 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2024, of 87.
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
- 532ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 26 Jul 2024 – 28 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Jul
- 2024
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 175 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Berkovići where it started514 ha1.7 %
-
19 ha0.1 %
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 land71 %
- Broadleaved forest23 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub5.1 %
- Agricultural areas0.6 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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 Jul | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 27 Jul | 31.7 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Jul | 33.2 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jul after | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 46 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Jul after | 30.0 °C | 20 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Jul after | 32.0 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Aug after | 31.5 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 29 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Berkovići fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2024 and 28 July 2024: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 532 hectares (5.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Berkovići (514 ha, 1.7 %); Stolac (19 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
- 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.
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
Satellite cross-check
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
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.