Nikopol fire, August 2019 Никопол · Nikopol
The fire started on 16 August 2019 in Nikopol, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 103 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 22th largest in Pleven since 2016 (of 23 with a page). Number 39 in Bulgaria in 2019, of 42.
The power measured by the satellite is low (7.9 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
- 103ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 16 Aug 2019 – 17 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 8 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 18MW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 23 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
103 ha reached on 16 Aug0.3 %
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
- Agricultural areas71 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland27 %
- Broadleaved forest2.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Nikopolsko plato BG0000247 · BG0002074
- LIC Persina BG0000396
Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 28.4 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Aug | 27.0 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 26 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Aug after | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Aug after | 35.5 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Aug after | 34.8 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
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 18 August 2019 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 5Every 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 Nikopol fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 16 August 2019 and 17 August 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nikopol (103 ha, 0.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.0 km of Nikopol. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.4 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (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: 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 ADM2 (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.