Makedonski Brod fire, 25 October 2019 Општина Македонски Брод · Makedonski Brod, Gostivar
The fire started on 25 October 2019 in Makedonski Brod, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 298 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 28th largest in Southwest since 2016 (of 62 with a page). Number 24 in North Macedonia in 2019, of 77.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
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- Burnt area
- 298ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 25 Oct 2019 – 30 Oct 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 25 Oct
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 41
- in a single hotspot: 17 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 30MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
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
It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.6 mm on 4 Nov.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Makedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод 5,889 inhabitants · 25.6 km from the centre where it started204 ha reached on 25 Oct0.2 %
-
94 ha reached on 28 Oct0.2 %
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
- Broadleaved forest55 %
- Other natural land30 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
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 Oct | 18.4 °C | 25 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 26 Oct | 18.7 °C | 24 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Oct | 18.8 °C | 18 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 28 Oct | 18.4 °C | 18 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Oct | 16.9 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 30 Oct | 13.5 °C | 43 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 31 Oct after | 5.5 °C | 82 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 1 Nov after | 6.2 °C | 78 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 2 Nov after | 10.0 °C | 67 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 7 |
| 3 Nov after | 12.2 °C | 67 % | 53 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 6 |
| 4 Nov after | 10.9 °C | 80 % | 71 km/h | 7.6 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 30 October 2019 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 41Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,197 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски БродJuly 2017 · 19 days · 11 km away
- 2,807 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод28 July 2024 · 12 days · 16 km away
- 2,056 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод1 September 2026 · 25 days · 22 km away
- 3,768 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод2 July 2025 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 1,749 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски БродSeptember 2019 · 5 days · 32 km away
- 1,813 haSaraj Општина СарајJuly 2017 · 10 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Makedonski Brod fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 October 2019 to 30 October 2019 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 October 2019 to 27 October 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 298 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Makedonski Brod (204 ha, 0.2 %); Gostivar (94 ha, 0.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 13.6 km of the centre of Gostivar, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 18.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 17 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- 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 · 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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 October 2019 to 27 October 2019. 41 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.
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.