Bileća fire, 15 March 2022 Bileća
The fire started on 15 March 2022 in Bileća, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 4,594 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 3th largest in Republika Srpska since 2016 (of 391 with a page). The largest in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2022, of 144.
- Burnt area
- 4,594ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 15 Mar 2022 – 15 Mar 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 132
- in a single hotspot: 27 MW
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 101 ha in 2016, 694 ha in 2017, 1,268 ha in 2019, 113 ha in 2020, 41 ha in 2021.
- 1,265 ha Bileća fire, March 2019 1,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 315 ha Bileća fire, August 2017 1,076 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 190 ha Bileća fire, March 2017 190 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 113 ha Bileća fire, April 2020 272 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 85 ha Bileća fire, August 2017 149 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bileća where it started4,596 ha reached on 12 Mar7.2 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub80 %
- Broadleaved forest13 %
- Other natural land5.9 %
- Agricultural areas1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Mar | 12.2 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 16 Mar after | 11.4 °C | 55 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 2 |
| 17 Mar after | 12.1 °C | 42 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 18 Mar after | 11.3 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 19 Mar after | 9.9 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 20 Mar after | 8.6 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 21 Mar after | 9.8 °C | 18 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 22 Mar after | 14.0 °C | 18 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 23 Mar after | 17.0 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 24 Mar after | 18.7 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 25 Mar after | 18.5 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
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 · 132Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bileća fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 March 2022 and 15 March 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 4,594 hectares (45.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bileća (4,596 ha, 7.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 12.2 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, 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.