Burned area
satellite only111ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ME · Montenegro ·
Nikšić Municipality fire, 23 December 2016 Nikšić Municipality
Out · last detection 23 Dec 2016, 00:43 UTC
The fire started on 23 December 2016 in Nikšić Municipality, Montenegro, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 111 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 16 in Montenegro in 2016, of 17.
The power measured by the satellite is low (2.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
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Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only1day
23 Dec 2016 to 23 Dec 2016: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 23 Dec 2016, 00:43 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only23 Dec 2016
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 23 Dec 2016
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only3
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 2 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 23 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only7MW
Total radiative power on 23 December 2016; hotspots that day: 3.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 23 Dec 2016
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model2.3FWI · very low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 26.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 23 Dec 2016, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model5.4°C · 46% RH
High of 5.4 °C and minimum humidity of 46% on 23 December 2016; gusts of 42 km/h on 23 December 2016.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 23 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 111 ha
- Dates
- 23 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
- Name
- Nikšić Municipality
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/niksic-municipality-2016-12-2?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire niksic-municipality-2016-12-2.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-12-23 | 3 | 7 | 5.4 | -4.7 | 46 | 12.6 | 42.1 | 0 | 2.3 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2016-12-24 | 0 | 0 | 6.8 | -3.2 | 51 | 9.4 | 33.5 | 0 | 1.7 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2016-12-25 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 | -4.3 | 59 | 12.5 | 36.4 | 0 | 1.5 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2016-12-26 | 0 | 0 | 5.3 | -1.2 | 69 | 7.3 | 36.7 | 0 | 0.8 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2016-12-27 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 | -1.4 | 50 | 13.7 | 49.3 | 3.9 | 0.1 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 111ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 23 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Dec
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 3
- in a single hotspot: 2 MW
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 7MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
23 Dec23 Dec
How it evolved, day by day
23 Dec 2016 · 7 MW · 3
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
5°high
42km/h · peak gust
46%lowest humidity
It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 27 Dec.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Nikšić Municipality where it started111 ha reached on 23 Dec0.1 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland78 %
- Other natural land19 %
- Broadleaved forest2.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Dec | 5.4 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 24 Dec after | 6.8 °C | 51 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 25 Dec after | 2.5 °C | 59 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 26 Dec after | 5.3 °C | 69 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 27 Dec after | 2.5 °C | 50 % | 49 km/h | 3.9 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 2.3, a minimum humidity of 46% and 26 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 41.
FWI at the start
2.3
Minimum humidity
46 %
Days without rain
26
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Nikšić Municipality fire, 23 December 2016
111 ha
1 day
FWI 2.3
Min. humidity 46 %
Municipality of Dragash fire, October 2019
149 ha
1 day
FWI 2.9
Min. humidity 46 %
210 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 31 Oct.
Nikšić Municipality fire, January 2020
190 ha
2 days
FWI 0.6
Min. humidity 46 %
48 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 19 Jan.
Trebinje fire, January 2020
213 ha
4 days
FWI 1.0
Min. humidity 46 %
58 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bosansko Grahovo fire, January 2020
168 ha
2 days
FWI 1.5
Min. humidity 45 %
224 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 26 Jan.
Cetinje Municipality fire, March 2022
122 ha
2 days
FWI 5.6
Min. humidity 47 %
71 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 18.1 mm on 30 Mar.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 185 ha
- median area
- 2 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 6.7 mm
- rain at the end (median; 35 of 41 had it)
It stayed below its twins: 111 ha against a median of 185 ha. It lasted 1 day, against 2 days.
In 6 of 41, 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 6.7 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
3.9 mmfirst rain
27 Dec4 days after it ended
42km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 23 Dec, and on 27 Dec 3.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 35 of 41, with a median of 6.7 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 16 Dec 2016
After · 30 Dec 2016
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 3Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nikšić Municipality fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 23 December 2016 and 23 December 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 111 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nikšić Municipality (111 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 5.4 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, class Very low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Montenegro (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: 41. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 185 ha; 2 % went past 1,000 ha. In 6 of 41, 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 6.7 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: 112 · 123 · 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 ADM1 (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.