Skip to content
worldfires
MK · North Macedonia · →

Gradsko fire, 12 July 2024 Општина Градско · Gradsko, Veles

Out · last measured on 12 Jul 2024

The fire started on 12 July 2024 in Gradsko, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 854 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Vardar since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 17 in North Macedonia in 2024, of 69.

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
854ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
12 Jul 2024 – 12 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Jul
2024
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
20km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 181 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Gradsko Општина Градско 11.4 km from the town where it started
    505 ha
    2.1 %
  2. Veles Општина Велес 48,463 inhabitants · 7.5 km from the town
    349 ha
    0.8 %

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 areas54 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland37 %
  • Broadleaved forest7.1 %
  • Other natural land2.2 %

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)
12 Jul 36.8 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Jul after 37.2 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Jul after 37.1 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Jul after 37.5 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Jul after 37.7 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jul after 37.7 °C 19 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jul after 38.5 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Jul after 36.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jul after 35.9 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jul after 36.8 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Jul after 33.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jul 2024
After · 19 Jul 2024

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 14 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1023 µg/m³
Optical depth0.54
101112131415
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 North Macedonia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gradsko fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 July 2024 and 12 July 2024: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 854 hectares (8.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gradsko (505 ha, 2.1 %); Veles (349 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.5 km of Veles. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 20 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of North Macedonia (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: 193 · 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 193 · 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.