Burned area
satellite only180ha
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 · –
Podgorica Municipality fire, 18 July 2017 Podgorica Municipality
Out · last measured on 19 Jul 2017
The fire started on 18 July 2017 in Podgorica Municipality, Montenegro, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 180 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 58 in Montenegro in 2017, of 75.
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
18 Jul 2017 to 19 Jul 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Jul 2017 – 19 Jul 2017
+− 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 only18 Jul 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Jul 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Danger at the start
model25.1FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 15.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 18 Jul 2017, 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
model30.3°C · 29% RH
High of 30.3 °C and minimum humidity of 29% on 18 July 2017; gusts of 33 km/h on 18 July 2017.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 18 Jul 2017 – 19 Jul 2017
- 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 GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· 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
- 180 ha
- Dates
- 18 Jul 2017 – 19 Jul 2017
- Name
- Podgorica Municipality
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/podgorica-municipality-2017-07-18?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 podgorica-municipality-2017-07-18.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-07-18 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 16.2 | 29 | 8.8 | 32.8 | 0 | 25.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-07-19 | 0 | 0 | 29.2 | 17.1 | 40 | 9.1 | 28.1 | 0.3 | 30.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-07-20 | 0 | 0 | 29.2 | 18 | 45 | 7.1 | 25.9 | 4.1 | 28.1 | alto | 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
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 180ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 18 Jul 2017 – 19 Jul 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2017
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
30°high
33km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity
It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 20 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Podgorica Municipality where it started181 ha0.1 %
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
- Other natural land51 %
- Broadleaved forest32 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 30.3 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 19 Jul | 29.2 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Jul after | 29.2 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 4.1 mm | High 28 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 25.1, a minimum humidity of 29% and 15 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 49.
FWI at the start
25.1
Minimum humidity
29 %
Days without rain
15
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Podgorica Municipality fire, 18 July 2017
180 ha
2 days
FWI 25.1
Min. humidity 29 %
Malësi e Madhe fire, August 2017
287 ha
7 days
FWI 25.0
Min. humidity 29 %
40 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.5 mm on 29 Aug.
Nikšić Municipality fire, July 2022
1,557 ha
7 days
FWI 24.5
Min. humidity 27 %
27 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.3 mm on 27 Jul.
Podgorica Municipality fire, July 2022
341 ha
3 days
FWI 27.3
Min. humidity 29 %
10 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Podgorica Municipality fire, September 2016
169 ha
2 days
FWI 22.6
Min. humidity 30 %
20 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 44.7 mm on 5 Sept.
Plužine Municipality fire, July 2025
798 ha
1 day
FWI 25.8
Min. humidity 30 %
68 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.8 mm on 27 Jul.
What happened to them
- 4 days
- median duration
- 316 ha
- median area
- 8 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 5.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 42 of 49 had it)
It stayed below its twins: 180 ha against a median of 316 ha. It lasted 2 days, against 4 days.
In 7 of 49, 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 5.0 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
4.1 mmfirst rain
20 Julthe day after it ended
33km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 19 Jul, and on 20 Jul 4.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 42 of 49, with a median of 5.0 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 · 11 Jul 2017
After · 26 Jul 2017
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.
Other fires nearby
- 4,057 haPodgorica Municipality11 August 2025 · 7 days · 5 km away
- 6,019 haPodgorica Municipality1 August 2017 · 26 days · 10 km away
- 2,739 haPodgorica Municipality11 August 2025 · 4 days · 13 km away
- 5,687 haDanilovgrad Municipality7 July 2017 · 13 days · 20 km away
- 14,076 haNikšić Municipality17 August 2026 · 26 days · 31 km away
- 7,850 haCetinje Municipality1 August 2021 · 24 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Podgorica Municipality fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 18 July 2017 and 19 July 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 180 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Podgorica Municipality (181 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- 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: 49. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 316 ha; 8 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 49, 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 5.0 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. 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.
- 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.