Burned area
satellite only876ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 2 March 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
HR · Croatia · –
Grad Gospić fire, 26 February 2019 Grad Gospić
Out · last detection 27 Feb 2019, 01:57 UTC
The fire started on 26 February 2019 in Grad Gospić, Croatia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 876 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 8th largest in Lika-Senj since 2016 (of 85 with a page). Number 3 in Croatia in 2019, of 32.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only2days
26 Feb 2019 to 27 Feb 2019: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 27 Feb 2019, 01:57 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only26 Feb 2019
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 26 Feb 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only18
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 55 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 26 Feb 2019 – 27 Feb 2019
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only222MW
Total radiative power on 26 February 2019; hotspots that day: 16.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 26 Feb 2019
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model3.3FWI · very low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 26 Feb 2019, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model12.5°C · 41% RH
High of 12.5 °C and minimum humidity of 41% on 26 February 2019; gusts of 56 km/h on 27 February 2019.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 26 Feb 2019 – 27 Feb 2019
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 876 ha
- Dates
- 26 Feb 2019 – 27 Feb 2019
- Name
- Grad Gospić
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/grad-gospic-2019-02-3?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire grad-gospic-2019-02-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-02-26 | 16 | 222 | 12.5 | 0.1 | 41 | 18.6 | 49.7 | 0 | 3.3 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2019-02-27 | 2 | 4 | 9.2 | 1.7 | 46 | 21 | 56.2 | 0 | 3.8 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2019-02-28 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 36 | 10.2 | 30.6 | 0 | 3.2 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2019-03-01 | 0 | 0 | 12.3 | 0.8 | 53 | 10.9 | 32 | 0.4 | 3.2 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2019-03-02 | 0 | 0 | 12.1 | -1.5 | 43 | 14 | 39.6 | 0.2 | 3.8 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2019-03-03 | 0 | 0 | 13.3 | 0.4 | 38 | 9.3 | 26.6 | 0 | 3.6 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2019-03-04 | 0 | 0 | 11.9 | 2 | 58 | 19.1 | 51.5 | 0 | 4.6 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2019-03-05 | 0 | 0 | 11.2 | 3.7 | 69 | 16.2 | 46.8 | 5.8 | 0.1 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 876ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 26 Feb 2019 – 27 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Feb
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 18
- in a single hotspot: 55 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 113MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
26 Feb27 Feb
27 Feb 2019
How it evolved, day by day
26 Feb
27 Feb
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
12°high
56km/h · peak gust
41%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 5 Mar.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 673 ha in 2016, 164 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 680 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Zagreb boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Grad Gospić where it started875 ha reached on 26 Feb0.9 %
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
- Agricultural areas58 %
- Other natural land41 %
- Broadleaved forest0.6 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Lička krška polja HR1000021
- LIC Ličko polje HR2001012
Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Feb | 12.5 °C | 41 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 27 Feb | 9.2 °C | 46 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 28 Feb after | 14.0 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 1 Mar after | 12.3 °C | 53 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 2 Mar after | 12.1 °C | 43 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 3 Mar after | 13.3 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 4 Mar after | 11.9 °C | 58 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 5 Mar after | 11.2 °C | 69 % | 47 km/h | 5.8 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 3.3, a minimum humidity of 41% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 18.
FWI at the start
3.3
Minimum humidity
41 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Grad Gospić fire, 26 February 2019
876 ha
2 days
FWI 3.3
Min. humidity 41 %
Općina Barilović fire, April 2019
157 ha
1 day
FWI 3.7
Min. humidity 41 %
99 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.0 mm on 23 Apr.
Bihać fire, August 2026
120 ha
12 days
FWI 4.6
Min. humidity 40 %
42 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.5 mm on 10 Sept.
Grad Vrlika fire, March 2025
545 ha
2 days
FWI 3.7
Min. humidity 41 %
94 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 32.5 mm on 11 Mar.
Bosanski Petrovac fire, February 2022
419 ha
2 days
FWI 1.2
Min. humidity 41 %
59 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.7 mm on 20 Feb.
Grad Gospić fire, May 2022
120 ha
1 day
FWI 6.8
Min. humidity 41 %
1 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.6 mm on 17 May.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 308 ha
- median area
- 11 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 5.3 mm
- rain at the end (median; 17 of 18 had it)
It was 2.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.
Only 2 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 5.3 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
5.8 mmfirst rain
5 Mar6 days after it ended
56km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 27 Feb, and on 5 Mar 5.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 18, with a median of 5.3 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 19 Feb 2019
After · 6 Mar 2019
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 1 March 2019 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1026 µg/m³
WHO 15
24 Feb26 Feb28 Feb2 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)
Detections table · 18Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,155 haGrad Gospić8 April 2020 · 6 days · 7 km away
- 2,218 haOpćina UdbinaApril 2020 · 7 days · 11 km away
- 1,483 haOpćina Udbina25 February 2019 · 3 days · 15 km away
- 3,936 haOpćina Gračac22 March 2022 · 8 days · 23 km away
- 1,301 haOpćina Lovinac29 March 2017 · 5 days · 25 km away
- 1,823 haOpćina Jasenice13 August 2017 · 10 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Grad Gospić fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 26 February 2019 and 27 February 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 876 hectares (8.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Grad Gospić (875 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 12.5 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very 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 2 days and their median area 308 ha; 11 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 2 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 5.3 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.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 18 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.
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.