Neum fire, August 2022 Neum
The fire started on 2 August 2022 in Neum, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,027 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2016 (of 520 with a page). Number 6 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2022, of 144.
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
- 2,027ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 7days
- 2 Aug 2022 – 8 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 2 Aug
- 2022
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 10 Aug.
This area had burned before
51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,005 ha in 2017, 18 ha in 2019, 297 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,039 ha that had burned before.
- 564 ha Neum fire, August 2017 594 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 429 ha Neum fire, March 2017 491 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 296 ha Neum fire, March 2021 449 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18 ha Neum fire, August 2019 192 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12 ha Neum fire, July 2017 653 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Neum fire, August 2021 10,484 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Neum where it started2,028 ha9.5 %
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
- Other natural land56 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub34 %
- Agricultural areas6.2 %
- Broadleaved forest2.7 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Aug | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Aug | 35.4 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Aug | 36.1 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Aug | 35.1 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Aug | 37.4 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Aug | 36.2 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Aug | 35.4 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 2.1 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 2.1 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 8 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Neum fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2022 and 8 August 2022: 7 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,027 hectares (20.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Neum (2,028 ha, 9.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.