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RS · Serbia · –

Negotin Municipality fire, 3 September 2026 Неготин · Negotin Municipality

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2026, 10:43 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2026 in Negotin Municipality, Serbia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 331 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 22th largest in Borski upravni okrug since 2016 (of 61 with a page). Number 12 in Serbia in 2026, of 54.

The power measured by the satellite is low (4.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
331ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 10days
3 Sept 2026 – 12 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
3 Sept
2026
Heat detections
9
in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
14MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3 Sept 2026 · 14 MW · 9

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
50km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 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. Negotin Municipality Неготин 28,261 inhabitants · 7.5 km from the centre where it started
    331 ha reached on 3 Sept
    0.3 %

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

  • Agricultural areas98 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland1.5 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.6 %

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 Very dry air: 4.9 % of the area in Serbia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Sept 33.1 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Sept 33.0 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
5 Sept 37.3 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 30.7 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
7 Sept 29.3 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Sept 31.5 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 32.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Sept 32.3 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept 34.2 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept 24.6 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Sept after 26.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Sept after 26.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept after 25.9 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Sept after 29.6 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Sept after 30.7 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept after 30.0 °C 23 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Sept after 31.4 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept after 31.5 °C 16 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Sept after 25.7 °C 30 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Sept after 20.0 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 50.1, a minimum humidity of 12% and 37 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 50.1
Minimum humidity 12 %
Days without rain 37
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Zitoradja Municipality fire, July 2025
3,110 ha 4 days FWI 47.0 Min. humidity 16 % 148 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 17 Jul.

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
238 ha
median area
7 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 27 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (331 ha against a median of 238 ha) and lasted 10 days, against 3 days.

In 3 of 30, 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 1.9 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
50km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 12 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 27 of 30, with a median of 1.9 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 · 27 Aug 2026
After · 19 Sept 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 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1021 µg/m³
Optical depth0.38
1 Sept3 Sept5 Sept
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 · 9Every 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?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (3 September 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 12 September 2026 (10 days from 3 September 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 331 hectares (3.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Negotin Municipality (331 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Negotin Municipality and came within 7.5 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 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very extreme.
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: 30. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 238 ha; 7 % went past 1,000 ha. In 3 of 30, 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 1.9 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.

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. 9 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.