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Kochani fire, 28 July 2021 Општина Кочани · Kochani, Cheshinovo - Obleshevo

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2021, 01:01 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2021 in Kochani, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 194 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 20th largest in East since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 23 in North Macedonia in 2021, of 36.

The power measured by the satellite is low (2.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cheshinovo - Obleshevo · 2016Karbintsi · 2024Sveti Nikole · 2024Negotino · 2024

Burnt area
194ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
28 Jul 2021 – 29 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Jul
2021
Heat detections
2
in a single hotspot: 2 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
3MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul29 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

29 Jul 2021 · 3 MW · 2

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
27km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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

  1. Kochani Општина Кочани 31,602 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town where it started
    181 ha reached on 29 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Cheshinovo - Obleshevo Општина Чешиново-Облешево 5,471 inhabitants · 6.5 km from the town
    14 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland54 %
  • Agricultural areas46 %

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)
28 Jul 37.0 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
29 Jul 37.9 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Jul after 38.1 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Jul after 36.8 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Aug after 38.2 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Aug after 38.2 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Aug after 35.1 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Aug after 36.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Aug after 37.1 °C 21 % 62 km/h 0.9 mm Very high 42
6 Aug after 30.6 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
7 Aug after 32.6 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Aug after 35.4 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2021
After · 5 Aug 2021

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 29 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1041 µg/m³
2627282930311
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 · 2Every 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 Kochani fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 28 July 2021 and 29 July 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 194 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kochani (181 ha, 0.5 %); Cheshinovo - Obleshevo (14 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.8 km of Kochani. 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 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2 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.