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HR · Croatia · –

Općina Otok fire, March 2022 Općina Otok

Out · last detection 14 Mar 2022, 11:10 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2022 in Općina Otok, Croatia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 432 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 24th largest in Split-Dalmatia since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 15 in Croatia in 2022, of 59.

The power measured by the satellite is low (4.7 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
432ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
14 Mar 2022 – 15 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Mar
2022
Heat detections
1
in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
5MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

14 Mar 2022 · 5 MW · 1

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

10°high
24km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 212 ha in 2016, 302 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 350 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Općina Otok where it started
    394 ha reached on 14 Mar
    4.2 %

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 land97 %
  • Broadleaved forest3.0 %

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)
14 Mar 9.6 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
15 Mar 10.3 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
16 Mar after 10.1 °C 58 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
17 Mar after 9.9 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
18 Mar after 10.5 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
19 Mar after 9.7 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
20 Mar after 8.0 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
21 Mar after 9.0 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
22 Mar after 12.6 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Mar after 16.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
24 Mar after 17.1 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
25 Mar after 17.4 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 3.6, a minimum humidity of 40% and 15 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 44.

FWI at the start 3.6
Minimum humidity 40 %
Days without rain 15
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Općina Zažablje fire, February 2023
169 ha 1 day FWI 3.5 Min. humidity 40 % 101 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
235 ha
median area
9 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 36 of 44 had it)

It was 1.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 3 days.

Only 11 of its 44 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 8 of 44, 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 2.5 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
24km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 15 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 36 of 44, with a median of 2.5 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 · 7 Mar 2022
After · 22 Mar 2022

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 12 March 2022 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1027 µg/m³
12 Mar14 Mar16 Mar18 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 · 1Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Croatia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Općina Otok fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 14 March 2022 and 15 March 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 432 hectares (4.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Općina Otok (394 ha, 4.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 10.3 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very 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: 44. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 235 ha; 9 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 11 of its 44 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 8 of 44, 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 2.5 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.

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. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection 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.