How long did the Gradsko fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 25 August 2026 and 25 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 434 hectares (4.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Gradsko (434 ha, 1.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.2 km of Gradsko. 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 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.

MK · North Macedonia · 2026-08-25 → 2026-08-25

Gradsko fire, August 2026 Општина Градско · Gradsko

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2026, 11:51 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2026 in Gradsko, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 434 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Vardar since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 12 in North Macedonia in 2026, of 40.

Burnt area: 434ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 25 Aug 2026 – 25 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 25 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 8; in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start: 37; High · FWI index
Energy released: 200MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

31km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Gradsko Општина Градско 6.2 km from the town where it started

434 ha reached on 25 Aug

1.8 %

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 areas88 %
Other natural land6.5 %
Scrub and transitional woodland6.0 %

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)
25 Aug	35.8 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Aug after	36.3 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
27 Aug after	36.5 °C	21 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Aug after	37.5 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
29 Aug after	35.9 °C	30 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 38
30 Aug after	35.0 °C	22 %	22 km/h	0.7 mm	High 35
31 Aug after	35.8 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Sept after	36.6 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Sept after	35.0 °C	27 %	26 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 42
3 Sept after	33.8 °C	19 %	29 km/h	0.8 mm	Very high 39
4 Sept after	31.8 °C	19 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Aug 2026

After · 1 Sept 2026

Before After

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 24 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1040 µg/m³

Optical depth0.69

WHO 15

232425262728

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 · 8Every 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

All fires in North Macedonia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gradsko fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 25 August 2026 and 25 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 434 hectares (4.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Gradsko (434 ha, 1.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.2 km of Gradsko. 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 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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

Центар за управување со кризи ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned