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Foča fire, April 2020 Foča

Out · last measured on 14 Apr 2020

The fire started on 11 April 2020 in Foča, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 357 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 136th largest in Republika Srpska since 2016 (of 391 with a page). Number 67 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2020, of 183.

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
357ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
11 Apr 2020 – 14 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Apr
2020
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

17°high
55km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.0 mm on 21 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Foča where it started
    357 ha
    0.3 %

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

  • Agricultural areas72 %
  • Broadleaved forest26 %
  • Mixed forest2.3 %

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)
11 Apr 14.4 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
12 Apr 16.7 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
13 Apr 15.0 °C 30 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
14 Apr 9.0 °C 54 % 55 km/h 15.4 mm Very low 0
15 Apr after 4.7 °C 45 % 66 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 0
16 Apr after 16.2 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
17 Apr after 18.2 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
18 Apr after 18.9 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
19 Apr after 18.1 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
20 Apr after 10.6 °C 67 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 4
21 Apr after 5.5 °C 82 % 32 km/h 16.0 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Apr 2020
After · 21 Apr 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Bosnia & Herzegovina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Foča fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 11 April 2020 and 14 April 2020: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 357 hectares (3.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Foča (357 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 16.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, class 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
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 123 · 112.

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.