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MK · North Macedonia · –

Jegunovtse fire, July 2017 Општина Јегуновце · Jegunovtse, Saraj

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2017, 11:40 UTC

The fire started on 9 July 2017 in Jegunovtse, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 745 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Polog since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 6 in North Macedonia in 2017, of 44.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
745ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
7days
9 Jul 2017 – 15 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Jul
2017
Heat detections
26
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Average daily power
25MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jul15 Jul
15 Jul 2017

How it evolved, day by day

9 Jul 2017 · 41 MW · 5 10 Jul 2017 · 14 MW · 5 11 Jul 2017 · 14 MW · 6 12 Jul 2017 · 54 MW · 6 14 Jul 2017 · 18 MW · 3 15 Jul 2017 · 6 MW · 1
9 Jul 12 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
44km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 16 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.5% of the area of London (7.4 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. Jegunovtse Општина Јегуновце 8,895 inhabitants · 8.0 km from the centre where it started
    706 ha reached on 9 Jul
    4.0 %
  2. Saraj Општина Сарај 38,399 inhabitants · 14.9 km from the centre
    39 ha
    0.2 %

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 land52 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub47 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.5 %

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)
9 Jul 33.2 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Jul 35.3 °C 28 % 23 km/h 1.8 mm High 27
11 Jul 36.7 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Jul 35.3 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Jul 31.9 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jul 28.8 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jul 28.8 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Jul after 18.7 °C 52 % 30 km/h 4.5 mm Low 6

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 27.1, a minimum humidity of 33% and 5 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 63.

FWI at the start 27.1
Minimum humidity 33 %
Days without rain 5
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Municipality of Fushë Kosovë fire, July 2020
149 ha 3 days FWI 27.0 Min. humidity 34 % 58 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 31 Jul.

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
287 ha
median area
21 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 51 of 63 had it)

It was 2.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 7 days, against 4 days.

Only 16 of its 63 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 12 of 63, 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 4.0 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

4.5 mmfirst rain
16 Julthe day after it ended
44km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 15 Jul, and on 16 Jul 4.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 51 of 63, with a median of 4.0 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 · 2 Jul 2017
After · 22 Jul 2017

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 10 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak34 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1048 µg/m³
10 Jul12 Jul14 Jul16 Jul
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 · 26Every 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 North Macedonia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Jegunovtse fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 July 2017 to 15 July 2017 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 July 2017 to 14 July 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 745 hectares (7.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jegunovtse (706 ha, 4.0 %); Saraj (39 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Jegunovtse and came within 8.0 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.
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: 63. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 287 ha; 21 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 16 of its 63 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 12 of 63, 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 4.0 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: 193 · 112 · 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 193 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 July 2017 to 14 July 2017. 26 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 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.