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Lukovit fire, November 2023 Луковит · Ugarchin, Lukovit

Out · last measured on 7 Nov 2023

The fire started on 7 November 2023 in Lukovit, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 416 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Lovech since 2016 (of 52 with a page). Number 10 in Bulgaria in 2023, of 25.

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
416ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
7 Nov 2023 – 7 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Nov
2023
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index
Natura 2000
61%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

21°high
15km/h · peak gust
47%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.3 mm on 8 Nov.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4 ha in 2016, 351 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Ugarchin Угърчин 4,942 inhabitants · 9.8 km from the town
    263 ha
    0.4 %
  2. Lukovit Луковит 15,128 inhabitants · 15.8 km from the town where it started
    154 ha
    0.3 %

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 areas74 %
  • Broadleaved forest21 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland4.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 61 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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)
7 Nov 21.0 °C 47 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
8 Nov after 12.5 °C 80 % 30 km/h 11.3 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Oct 2023
After · 14 Nov 2023

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 8 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1017 µg/m³
Optical depth0.29
5678910
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 Bulgaria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lukovit fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 7 November 2023 and 7 November 2023: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 416 hectares (4.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ugarchin (263 ha, 0.4 %); Lukovit (154 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 9.8 km of Ugarchin. 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 21.0 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 15 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 9, class Low.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (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: 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 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 (Public Domain). 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.