Bihać fire, December 2016 Bihać
The fire started on 13 December 2016 in Bihać, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 316 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 199th largest in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2016 (of 520 with a page). Number 34 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2016, of 73.
The power measured by the satellite is low (5.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 316ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 13 Dec 2016 – 14 Dec 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Dec
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 6 MW
- Danger at start
- 1
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 22MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Bihać where it started314 ha reached on 13 Dec0.3 %
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
- Broadleaved forest51 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland27 %
- Other natural land23 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Dec | 4.9 °C | 32 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 14 Dec | 4.3 °C | 37 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 15 Dec after | 4.3 °C | 50 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 16 Dec after | 2.1 °C | 54 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 17 Dec after | 4.8 °C | 43 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 18 Dec after | 4.8 °C | 47 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 19 Dec after | 5.1 °C | 49 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 20 Dec after | 5.6 °C | 50 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 21 Dec after | 2.5 °C | 61 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 22 Dec after | 4.7 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 23 Dec after | 5.0 °C | 60 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 24 Dec after | 7.3 °C | 64 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
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.
Detections table · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,528 haBihać20 March 2022 · 8 days · 4 km away
- 4,225 haOpćina Gračac21 March 2022 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 4,086 haOpćina Gračac5 August 2017 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 4,959 haOpćina Gračac5 April 2020 · 6 days · 29 km away
- 3,936 haOpćina Gračac22 March 2022 · 6 days · 35 km away
- 8,657 haBosansko GrahovoAugust 2026 · 2 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bihać fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 13 December 2016 and 14 December 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 316 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bihać (314 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 4.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 1, class Very 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.
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.