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HR · Croatia ·

Grad Drniš fire, March 2022 Grad Drniš, Općina Biskupija

Out · last measured on 13 Mar 2022

The fire started on 13 March 2022 in Grad Drniš, Croatia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 379 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 31th largest in Šibenik-Knin since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 19 in Croatia in 2022, of 59.

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
379ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
13 Mar 2022 – 13 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 Mar
2022
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

10°high
23km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 227 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Grad Drniš where it started
    312 ha
    0.9 %
  2. 68 ha
    0.5 %

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 woodland83 %
  • Agricultural areas11 %
  • Broadleaved forest5.5 %

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)
13 Mar 10.0 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
14 Mar after 12.4 °C 42 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
15 Mar after 13.6 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
16 Mar after 13.3 °C 58 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
17 Mar after 13.7 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
18 Mar after 13.9 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
19 Mar after 13.4 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
20 Mar after 12.5 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
21 Mar after 12.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
22 Mar after 16.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
23 Mar after 19.5 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 6.2, a minimum humidity of 36% and 14 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 18.

FWI at the start 6.2
Minimum humidity 36 %
Days without rain 14
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Općina Udbina fire, February 2019
452 ha 5 days FWI 8.5 Min. humidity 36 % 94 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.1 mm on 5 Mar.

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
196 ha
median area
17 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 17 of 18 had it)

It was 1.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 1 day, against 3 days.

Only 7 of its 18 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 1 of 18, 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 3.0 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
23km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 13 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 18, with a median of 3.0 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 · 6 Mar 2022
After · 20 Mar 2022

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 13 March 2022 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1020 µg/m³
11 Mar13 Mar15 Mar
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Croatia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Grad Drniš fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 March 2022 and 13 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 379 hectares (3.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Grad Drniš (312 ha, 0.9 %); Općina Biskupija (68 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 10.0 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 23 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Croatia (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: 18. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 196 ha; 17 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 7 of its 18 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 1 of 18, 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 3.0 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 · 193 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 · 193.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.

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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.