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HR · Croatia · –

Grad Knin fire, 13 August 2026 Općina Kijevo, Općina Civljane, Grad Knin

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2026, 11:28 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2026 in Grad Knin, Croatia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,400 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Šibenik-Knin since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 2 in Croatia in 2026, of 25.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Općina Gračac · 2024Grad Drniš · 2016Dinara · 2020Općina Kijevo · 2024

Burnt area
3,400ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 9days
13 Aug 2026 – 21 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
13 Aug
2026
Heat detections
360
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
527MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug21 Aug
21 Aug 2026

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 2026 · 10 MW · 2 16 Aug 2026 · 52 MW · 9 17 Aug 2026 · 1,298 MW · 81 18 Aug 2026 · 1,075 MW · 92 19 Aug 2026 · 790 MW · 87 20 Aug 2026 · 377 MW · 65 21 Aug 2026 · 84 MW · 24
15 Aug 17 Aug 19 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

32°high
56km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.0 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,537 ha in 2020, 1,310 ha in 2024.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (34 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. Općina Kijevo
    1,654 ha reached on 17 Aug
    22 %
  2. Općina Civljane
    1,352 ha reached on 18 Aug
    16 %
  3. Grad Knin where it started
    359 ha reached on 15 Aug
    1.0 %

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

  • Other natural land67 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland27 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub3.5 %
  • Broadleaved forest2.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

  • ZEPA + LIC Dinara HR1000028 · HR5000028

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.19 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.19 hectares of 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)
13 Aug 31.7 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Aug 31.1 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Aug 32.0 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Aug 31.6 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 29.9 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Aug 30.2 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug 31.1 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Aug 32.2 °C 35 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Aug 30.7 °C 50 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug after 30.6 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.6 mm High 34
23 Aug after 31.0 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Aug after 31.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug after 24.7 °C 53 % 55 km/h 6.0 mm Low 6

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 28.2, a minimum humidity of 29% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.

FWI at the start 28.2
Minimum humidity 29 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Općina Gračac fire, August 2024
546 ha 1 day FWI 24.2 Min. humidity 29 % 29 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 18 Aug.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
303 ha
median area
19 %
went past 1,000 ha
13.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 21 had it)

It was 11.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 9 days, against 3 days.

None of its 21 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 3 of 21, 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 13.6 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

6.0 mmfirst rain
25 Aug4 days after it ended
56km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Aug, and on 25 Aug 6.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 21, with a median of 13.6 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 Aug 2026
After · 28 Aug 2026

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 16 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak46 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1065 µg/m³
Optical depth0.44
12 Aug14 Aug16 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 · 360Every 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 Croatia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Grad Knin fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (14 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 21 August 2026 (9 days from 13 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,400 hectares (34.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Općina Kijevo (1,654 ha, 22 %); Općina Civljane (1,352 ha, 16 %); Grad Knin (359 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
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: 21. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 303 ha; 19 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 21 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 3 of 21, 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 13.6 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 14 August 2026 → 21 August 2026.
  2. Start date: 14 August 2026 → 13 August 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
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.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 360 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 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.