Burned area
satellite only395ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 2 March 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
HR · Croatia · –
Općina Otok fire, March 2019 Općina Otok
Out · last detection 25 Mar 2019, 00:29 UTC
The fire started on 24 March 2019 in Općina Otok, Croatia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 395 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 27th largest in Split-Dalmatia since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 7 in Croatia in 2019, of 32.
The power measured by the satellite is low (7.4 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
Compare with…
Use this data
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 only2days
24 Mar 2019 to 25 Mar 2019: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 25 Mar 2019, 00:29 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 only24 Mar 2019
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 24 Mar 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only11
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 7 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 24 Mar 2019 – 25 Mar 2019
+− 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 only29MW
Total radiative power on 24 March 2019; hotspots that day: 9.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 24 Mar 2019
+− 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
model5.3FWI · low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 4.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 24 Mar 2019, 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
model17.8°C · 19% RH
High of 17.8 °C and minimum humidity of 19% on 24 March 2019; gusts of 37 km/h on 25 March 2019.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 24 Mar 2019 – 25 Mar 2019
- 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 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
- 395 ha
- Dates
- 24 Mar 2019 – 25 Mar 2019
- Name
- Općina Otok
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/opcina-otok-2019-03?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 opcina-otok-2019-03.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-03-24 | 9 | 29 | 17.8 | 1.1 | 19 | 8.2 | 24.1 | 0 | 5.3 | bajo | 1 |
| 2019-03-25 | 2 | 1 | 14.9 | 2.7 | 39 | 11.7 | 37.4 | 0.3 | 7.7 | bajo | 1 |
| 2019-03-26 | 0 | 0 | 5.1 | 0.8 | 55 | 23.9 | 72.7 | 9.1 | 0.2 | 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). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 395ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 24 Mar 2019 – 25 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 11
- in a single hotspot: 7 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 15MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
24 Mar25 Mar
25 Mar 2019
How it evolved, day by day
24 Mar
25 Mar
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
18°high
37km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.1 mm on 26 Mar.
This area had burned before
56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 222 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Općina Otok where it started353 ha reached on 24 Mar3.8 %
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 land77 %
- Broadleaved forest23 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Dinara HR1000028 · HR5000028
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Mar | 17.8 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 25 Mar | 14.9 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 26 Mar after | 5.1 °C | 55 % | 73 km/h | 9.1 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 5.3, a minimum humidity of 19% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.
FWI at the start
5.3
Minimum humidity
19 %
Days without rain
4
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Općina Otok fire, March 2019
395 ha
2 days
FWI 5.3
Min. humidity 19 %
Grad Vrgorac fire, March 2022
180 ha
1 day
FWI 6.0
Min. humidity 21 %
60 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Grad Knin fire, March 2025
101 ha
2 days
FWI 5.6
Min. humidity 21 %
70 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.1 mm on 10 Mar.
Grad Slunj fire, March 2022
119 ha
2 days
FWI 4.9
Min. humidity 18 %
203 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Općina Donji Kukuzari fire, February 2019
153 ha
4 days
FWI 8.3
Min. humidity 19 %
183 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.5 mm on 5 Mar.
Grad Glina fire, February 2019
117 ha
1 day
FWI 9.4
Min. humidity 19 %
188 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.3 mm on 5 Mar.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 188 ha
- median area
- 15 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 5.3 mm
- rain at the end (median; 31 of 34 had it)
It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.
Only 11 of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 34, 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 5.3 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
9.1 mmfirst rain
26 Marthe day after it ended
37km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 25 Mar, and on 26 Mar 9.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 31 of 34, with a median of 5.3 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 17 Mar 2019
After · 1 Apr 2019
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 March 2019 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1029 µg/m³
WHO 15
22 Mar24 Mar26 Mar28 Mar
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 · 11Every 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 Općina Otok fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 March 2019 to 25 March 2019 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 March 2019 to 24 March 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 395 hectares (4.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Općina Otok (353 ha, 3.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 17.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, class Low.
- 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: 34. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 188 ha; 15 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 11 of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 34, 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 5.3 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 March 2019 to 24 March 2019. 11 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.
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.