How long did the Ohrid fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2024 and 4 August 2024: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 179 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Ohrid (180 ha, 0.5 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.0 km of Ohrid. 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 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of North Macedonia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

MK · North Macedonia · 2024-08-02 → 2024-08-04

Ohrid fire, 2 August 2024 Општина Охрид · Ohrid

Out · last detection 3 Aug 2024, 23:59 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2024 in Ohrid, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 179 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 37th largest in Southwest since 2016 (of 61 with a page). Number 44 in North Macedonia in 2024, of 69.

Burnt area: 179ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 2 Aug 2024 – 4 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 2 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 25; in a single hotspot: 131 MW
Danger at start: 27; High · FWI index
Energy released: 783MW; sum of detected power

Play back 3 Aug 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug4 Aug

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

31°high

44km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

Ohrid Општина Охрид 51,428 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the town where it started

180 ha reached on 2 Aug

0.5 %

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

Broadleaved forest31 %
Scrub and transitional woodland29 %
Mixed forest26 %
Other natural land9.5 %
Coniferous forest3.4 %
Agricultural areas1.1 %

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	31.3 °C	26 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
3 Aug	29.5 °C	34 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
4 Aug	25.5 °C	57 %	28 km/h	1.9 mm	Low 5
5 Aug after	26.3 °C	41 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
6 Aug after	28.5 °C	38 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
7 Aug after	29.3 °C	37 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
8 Aug after	29.8 °C	37 %	18 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
9 Aug after	29.6 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
10 Aug after	29.0 °C	33 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
11 Aug after	30.5 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
12 Aug after	31.6 °C	30 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
13 Aug after	33.2 °C	28 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
14 Aug after	33.7 °C	25 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 26 Jul 2024

After · 11 Aug 2024

Before After

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 6 August 2024 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 depth0.32

WHO 15

311234567

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 · 25Every 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

All fires in North Macedonia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ohrid fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2024 and 4 August 2024: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 179 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Ohrid (180 ha, 0.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.0 km of Ohrid. 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 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of North Macedonia (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: 193 · 112

Центар за управување со кризи ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.

Where it burned