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HR · Croatia ·

Općina Jelsa fire, July 2026 Općina Jelsa, Grad Hvar

Out · last measured on 5 Jul 2026

The fire started on 5 July 2026 in Općina Jelsa, Croatia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 130 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 45th largest in Split-Dalmatia since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 19 in Croatia in 2026, of 25.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Prozor-Rama · 2026Općina Sali · 2026Općina Nerežišća · 2026Općina Smokvica · 2026

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
130ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
5 Jul 2026 – 5 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
5 Jul
2026
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

25°high
35km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Općina Jelsa where it started
    127 ha
    0.9 %
  2. Grad Hvar
    3 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Other natural land73 %
  • Agricultural areas27 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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)
5 Jul 24.9 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Jul after 24.9 °C 64 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Jul after 25.1 °C 57 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 Jul after 24.3 °C 73 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
9 Jul after 25.0 °C 55 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Jul after 24.3 °C 57 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Jul after 24.8 °C 59 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
12 Jul after 24.8 °C 69 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 15
13 Jul after 24.7 °C 69 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
14 Jul after 24.8 °C 65 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
15 Jul after 25.1 °C 71 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 27.7, a minimum humidity of 45% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 29.

FWI at the start 27.7
Minimum humidity 45 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Prozor-Rama fire, August 2026
154 ha 1 day FWI 26.0 Min. humidity 44 % 98 km away, in 2026

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 25 Aug.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
390 ha
median area
21 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 20 of 29 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 130 ha against a median of 390 ha. It lasted 1 day, against 3 days.

In 9 of 29, 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 2.3 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 5 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 29, with a median of 2.3 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jun 2026
After · 12 Jul 2026

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 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 8 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak8 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1011 µg/m³
Optical depth0.34
3 Jul5 Jul7 Jul
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Croatia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Općina Jelsa fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 5 July 2026 and 5 July 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 130 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Općina Jelsa (127 ha, 0.9 %); Grad Hvar (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.9 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 35 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 Croatia (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: 29. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 390 ha; 21 % went past 1,000 ha. In 9 of 29, 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 2.3 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 · 193 · 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
What do you think is wrong?

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 112 · 193.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.