Neum fire, 4 August 2021 Ljubinje, Stolac, Ravno
The fire started on 4 August 2021 in Neum, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 10,484 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2016 (of 520 with a page). The largest in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2021, of 86.
- Burnt area
- 10,484ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 7days
- 4 Aug 2021 – 10 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 6
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 494
- in a single hotspot: 62 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- sum of detected power
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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 111 ha in 2016, 7,313 ha in 2017.
- 7,240 ha Ravno fire, July 2017 9,438 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 111 ha Ravno fire, August 2016 130 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 58 ha Neum fire, March 2017 491 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14 ha Neum fire, July 2017 653 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
4,177 ha reached on 6 Aug13 %
-
1,627 ha reached on 5 Aug7.2 %
-
1,458 ha reached on 5 Aug4.5 %
-
1,387 ha reached on 6 Aug1.6 %
-
Neum where it started1,064 ha reached on 6 Aug5.0 %
-
657 ha reached on 6 Aug2.2 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub53 %
- Other natural land37 %
- Agricultural areas5.7 %
- Broadleaved forest2.9 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Aug | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Aug | 29.6 °C | 32 % | 53 km/h | 27.6 mm | Very low 5 |
| 6 Aug | 28.3 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 7 Aug | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Aug | 33.6 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Aug | 34.4 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Aug | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Aug after | 35.9 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 13 Aug after | 36.1 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Aug after | 36.4 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Aug after | 35.9 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 43 % | 45 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 21 |
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.
Detections table · 494Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Neum fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 4 August 2021 and 10 August 2021: 7 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 10,484 hectares (104.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 6 municipalities: Ljubinje (4,177 ha, 13 %); Stolac (1,627 ha, 7.2 %); Ravno (1,458 ha, 4.5 %); Trebinje (1,387 ha, 1.6 %); Neum (1,064 ha, 5.0 %); Berkovići (657 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bosnia & Herzegovina (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: 123 · 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
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 ADM3 (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.