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ME · Montenegro · –

Danilovgrad Municipality fire, 7 July 2017 Danilovgrad Municipality, Cetinje Municipality, Podgorica Municipality

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2017, 11:47 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2017 in Danilovgrad Municipality, Montenegro, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,687 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 2 in Montenegro in 2017, of 75.

Burnt area
5,687ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
13days
7 Jul 2017 – 19 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
7 Jul
2017
Heat detections
468
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
158MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul19 Jul
20 Jul 2017

How it evolved, day by day

7 Jul 2017 · 5 MW · 1 8 Jul 2017 · 40 MW · 16 9 Jul 2017 · 243 MW · 35 10 Jul 2017 · 256 MW · 57 11 Jul 2017 · 103 MW · 20 12 Jul 2017 · 50 MW · 10 13 Jul 2017 · 59 MW · 28 14 Jul 2017 · 488 MW · 80 15 Jul 2017 · 279 MW · 80 16 Jul 2017 · 86 MW · 10 17 Jul 2017 · 244 MW · 24 18 Jul 2017 · 151 MW · 36 19 Jul 2017 · 146 MW · 46 20 Jul 2017 · 57 MW · 25
7 Jul 10 Jul 14 Jul 19 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
58km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 20 Jul.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.6% of the area of London (57 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Danilovgrad Municipality where it started
    3,605 ha reached on 7 Jul
    6.8 %
  2. 2,078 ha reached on 8 Jul
    2.3 %
  3. 4 ha reached on 16 Jul
    0.0 %

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 woodland37 %
  • Other natural land32 %
  • Broadleaved forest31 %
  • Agricultural areas0.6 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)
7 Jul 31.0 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 Jul 31.1 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Jul 31.5 °C 40 % 22 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 4
10 Jul 31.8 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.9 mm Low 10
11 Jul 31.6 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Jul 32.4 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
13 Jul 32.7 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Jul 30.0 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
15 Jul 27.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 18
16 Jul 22.7 °C 36 % 53 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 12
17 Jul 24.0 °C 38 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Jul 28.0 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Jul 28.2 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
20 Jul after 28.9 °C 43 % 24 km/h 2.8 mm Very low 5

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 16.4, a minimum humidity of 33% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 39.

FWI at the start 16.4
Minimum humidity 33 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Danilovgrad Municipality fire, August 2026
780 ha 33 days FWI 17.2 Min. humidity 32 % 19 km away, in 2026

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.5 mm on 12 Sept.

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
347 ha
median area
23 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 34 of 39 had it)

It was 16.4 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 13 days, against 4 days.

Only 3 of its 39 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 5 of 39, 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 5.2 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

2.8 mmfirst rain
20 Julthe day after it ended
58km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 19 Jul, and on 20 Jul 2.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 34 of 39, with a median of 5.2 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 · 30 Jun 2017
After · 26 Jul 2017

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 · 468Every 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 Danilovgrad Municipality fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 July 2017 to 19 July 2017 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 July 2017 to 12 July 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,687 hectares (56.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Danilovgrad Municipality (3,605 ha, 6.8 %); Cetinje Municipality (2,078 ha, 2.3 %); Podgorica Municipality (4 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
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: 39. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 347 ha; 23 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 3 of its 39 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 5 of 39, 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 5.2 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: 12 July 2017 → 19 July 2017.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 July 2017 to 12 July 2017. 468 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 2015, 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.