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Kucevo Municipality fire, 14 March 2026 Кучево · Kucevo Municipality

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2026, 12:26 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2026 in Kucevo Municipality, Serbia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 575 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Braničevski upravni okrug since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 7 in Serbia in 2026, of 54.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Municipality of Mitrovica · 2023Carașova · 2017Kucevo Municipality · 2023Kucevo Municipality · 2020

Burnt area
575ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 3days
14 Mar 2026 – 16 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Mar
2026
Heat detections
35
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
137MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar16 Mar
16 Mar 2026

How it evolved, day by day

14 Mar 2026 · 1 MW · 1 15 Mar 2026 · 406 MW · 33 16 Mar 2026 · 2 MW · 1
14 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

12°high
61km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 253 ha in 2016, 502 ha in 2017, 64 ha in 2018, 568 ha in 2019, 556 ha in 2020, 488 ha in 2021, 93 ha in 2022, 497 ha in 2023, 334 ha in 2024, 147 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 575 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.4% of the area of London (5.8 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. Kucevo Municipality Кучево 11,806 inhabitants · 8.9 km from the centre where it started
    576 ha reached on 14 Mar
    0.8 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland46 %
  • Broadleaved forest22 %
  • Other natural land18 %
  • Agricultural areas14 %

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)

Started with Strong wind: 8.9 % of the area in Serbia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
14 Mar 12.1 °C 42 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
15 Mar 10.5 °C 40 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
16 Mar 11.3 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
17 Mar after 11.1 °C 37 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
18 Mar after 9.6 °C 37 % 77 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Mar after 8.2 °C 47 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
20 Mar after 8.5 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm Low 6
21 Mar after 10.3 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
22 Mar after 9.5 °C 58 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
23 Mar after 10.3 °C 54 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
24 Mar after 13.7 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.8 mm Low 6
25 Mar after 14.1 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
26 Mar after 15.2 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 11.7, a minimum humidity of 42% and 17 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 32.

FWI at the start 11.7
Minimum humidity 42 %
Days without rain 17
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Municipality of Mitrovica fire, October 2023
105 ha 1 day FWI 11.7 Min. humidity 41 % 198 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.7 mm on 17 Oct.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
178 ha
median area
3 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 27 of 32 had it)

It was 3.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 3 days, against 2 days.

Only 2 of its 32 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 5 of 32, 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 4.3 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
61km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 16 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 27 of 32, with a median of 4.3 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 · 7 Mar 2026
After · 23 Mar 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 13 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1033 µg/m³
Optical depth0.45
12 Mar14 Mar16 Mar
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 · 35Every 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 Serbia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kucevo Municipality fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (14 March 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 16 March 2026 (3 days from 14 March 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 575 hectares (5.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kucevo Municipality (576 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Kucevo Municipality and came within 8.9 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 12.1 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Serbia (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: 32. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 178 ha; 3 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 2 of its 32 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 5 of 32, 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 4.3 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.

No changes since 24 October 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 193 · 112.

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. 35 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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.