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ME · Montenegro · –

Budva Municipality fire, 19 August 2025 Budva Municipality, Cetinje Municipality

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2025, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2025 in Budva Municipality, Montenegro, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 328 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 21 in Montenegro in 2025, of 60.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.6 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
328ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
19 Aug 2025 – 24 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2025
Heat detections
12
in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
12MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug24 Aug
21 Aug 2025

How it evolved, day by day

19 Aug 2025 · 9 MW · 2 20 Aug 2025 · 12 MW · 5 21 Aug 2025 · 16 MW · 5
19 Aug 20 Aug 21 Aug

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

24°high
51km/h · peak gust
46%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10 ha in 2017, 6 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Budva Municipality where it started
    274 ha reached on 19 Aug
    2.4 %
  2. 54 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.1 %

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 woodland49 %
  • Other natural land33 %
  • Broadleaved forest18 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
19 Aug 23.6 °C 49 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Aug 21.9 °C 62 % 20 km/h 0.9 mm Low 6
21 Aug 23.2 °C 46 % 51 km/h 24.1 mm Very low 1
22 Aug 19.7 °C 75 % 40 km/h 56.1 mm Very low 0
23 Aug 21.1 °C 50 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
24 Aug 21.3 °C 49 % 16 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 1
25 Aug after 21.0 °C 56 % 18 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 11.8, a minimum humidity of 49% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 11.8
Minimum humidity 49 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Malësi e Madhe fire, June 2017
189 ha 1 day FWI 10.4 Min. humidity 49 % 49 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 2 Jul.

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
168 ha
median area
12 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 17 had it)

It was 2.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 6 days, against 3 days.

Only 5 of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 4 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 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

2.1 mmfirst rain
25 Augthe day after it ended
51km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 24 Aug, and on 25 Aug 2.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 17, with a median of 2.0 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 12 Aug 2025
After · 31 Aug 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 21 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak13 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1024 µg/m³
Optical depth0.54
17 Aug19 Aug21 Aug23 Aug
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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)

Detections table · 12Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Montenegro

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Budva Municipality fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 August 2025 to 24 August 2025 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 August 2025 to 20 August 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 328 hectares (3.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Budva Municipality (274 ha, 2.4 %); Cetinje Municipality (54 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.6 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Montenegro (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: 17. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 168 ha; 12 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 5 of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 4 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 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: 112 · 123 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 20 August 2025 → 24 August 2025.

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112 · 123.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 August 2025 to 20 August 2025. 12 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM1 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.