Skip to content
worldfires
en
RS · Serbia · –

Negotin Municipality fire, 9 February 2024 Неготин · Negotin Municipality

Out · last detection 9 Feb 2024, 11:42 UTC

The fire started on 9 February 2024 in Negotin Municipality, Serbia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 443 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Borski upravni okrug since 2016 (of 61 with a page). Number 16 in Serbia in 2024, of 82.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.7 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: Despotovac Municipality · 2019Kucevo Municipality · 2021Negotin Municipality · 2017Kula · 2022

Burnt area
443ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
9 Feb 2024 – 10 Feb 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Feb
2024
Heat detections
1
in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start
7
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
6MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Feb10 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

9 Feb 2024 · 6 MW · 1

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

The weather it burned in

18°high
25km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 12 Feb.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 29 ha in 2020, 13 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Negotin Municipality Неготин 28,261 inhabitants · 7.6 km from the centre where it started
    443 ha reached on 9 Feb
    0.4 %

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 forest49 %
  • Agricultural areas29 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
  • Other natural land6.2 %

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 Feb 17.5 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
10 Feb 18.1 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
11 Feb after 17.3 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
12 Feb after 13.0 °C 68 % 32 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 5

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 7.1, a minimum humidity of 38% and 12 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.

FWI at the start 7.1
Minimum humidity 38 %
Days without rain 12
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Despotovac Municipality fire, March 2019
347 ha 9 days FWI 5.3 Min. humidity 39 % 69 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.9 mm on 8 Apr.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
212 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 20 of 21 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.

Only 5 of its 21 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 1 of 21, 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 3.9 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

3.1 mmfirst rain
12 Feb2 days after it ended
25km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 10 Feb, and on 12 Feb 3.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 21, with a median of 3.9 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 Feb 2024
After · 17 Feb 2024

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 11 February 2024 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1035 µg/m³
Optical depth0.29
8 Feb10 Feb12 Feb
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 · 1Every 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 Negotin Municipality fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 February 2024 to 10 February 2024 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 February 2024 to 10 February 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 443 hectares (4.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Negotin Municipality (443 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Negotin Municipality and came within 7.6 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 18.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 25 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 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: 21. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 212 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 5 of its 21 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 1 of 21, 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 3.9 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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 February 2024 to 10 February 2024. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection 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.