Burned area
satellite only873ha
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, 3 August 2020 Podgorica Municipality
Out · last detection 4 Aug 2020, 01:32 UTC
The fire started on 3 August 2020 in Podgorica Municipality, Montenegro, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 873 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 7 in Montenegro in 2020, of 106.
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
3 Aug 2020 to 4 Aug 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 4 Aug 2020, 01:32 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 only3 Aug 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only58
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 139 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020 – 4 Aug 2020
+− 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 only158MW
Total radiative power on 3 August 2020; hotspots that day: 13.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020
+− 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
model28.4FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020, 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
model29.5°C · 39% RH
High of 29.5 °C and minimum humidity of 39% on 3 August 2020; gusts of 50 km/h on 4 August 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020 – 4 Aug 2020
- 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
- 873 ha
- Dates
- 3 Aug 2020 – 4 Aug 2020
- Name
- Podgorica Municipality
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/podgorica-municipality-2020-08?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-2020-08.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-08-03 | 13 | 158 | 29.5 | 16.5 | 39 | 10.5 | 38.5 | 0 | 28.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-04 | 45 | 115 | 27 | 18.6 | 55 | 11.7 | 50 | 10.9 | 21.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-05 | 0 | 0 | 22.5 | 16.7 | 67 | 6.8 | 42.5 | 17.2 | 0 | 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), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 873ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 3 Aug 2020 – 4 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 3 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 58
- in a single hotspot: 139 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 136MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
3 Aug4 Aug
4 Aug 2020
How it evolved, day by day
3 Aug
4 Aug
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
30°high
50km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.2 mm on 5 Aug.
This area had burned before
0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3 ha in 2017.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Podgorica Municipality where it started873 ha reached on 3 Aug0.6 %
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 land52 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland34 %
- Broadleaved forest10 %
- Agricultural areas3.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug | 29.5 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Aug | 27.0 °C | 55 % | 50 km/h | 10.9 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Aug after | 22.5 °C | 67 % | 42 km/h | 17.2 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.4, a minimum humidity of 39% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 35.
FWI at the start
28.4
Minimum humidity
39 %
Days without rain
2
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Podgorica Municipality fire, 3 August 2020
873 ha
2 days
FWI 28.4
Min. humidity 39 %
Podgorica Municipality fire, July 2017
255 ha
3 days
FWI 28.7
Min. humidity 39 %
22 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 20 Jul.
Trebinje fire, August 2021
3,061 ha
10 days
FWI 27.6
Min. humidity 38 %
97 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.0 mm on 25 Aug.
Plužine Municipality fire, July 2025
341 ha
2 days
FWI 27.8
Min. humidity 38 %
98 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 12.0 mm on 9 Jul.
Danilovgrad Municipality fire, August 2021
265 ha
1 day
FWI 30.1
Min. humidity 40 %
29 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.6 mm on 5 Aug.
Nikšić Municipality fire, August 2026
14,076 ha
26 days
FWI 28.9
Min. humidity 40 %
49 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.5 mm on 12 Sept.
What happened to them
- 4 days
- median duration
- 265 ha
- median area
- 20 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 4.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 29 of 35 had it)
It was 3.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 4 days.
Only 7 of its 35 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 6 of 35, 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 4.0 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
17.2 mmfirst rain
5 Augthe day after it ended
50km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 4 Aug, and on 5 Aug 17.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 29 of 35, with a median of 4.0 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 · 27 Jul 2020
After · 11 Aug 2020
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.
Detections table · 58Every 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
- 2,739 haPodgorica Municipality11 August 2025 · 4 days · 7 km away
- 4,057 haPodgorica Municipality11 August 2025 · 7 days · 14 km away
- 2,281 haPodgorica Municipality29 July 2024 · 6 days · 20 km away
- 6,019 haPodgorica Municipality1 August 2017 · 26 days · 23 km away
- 5,687 haDanilovgrad Municipality7 July 2017 · 13 days · 34 km away
- 2,853 haBar Municipality17 August 2017 · 16 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Podgorica Municipality fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 3 August 2020 and 4 August 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 873 hectares (8.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Podgorica Municipality (873 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 50 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 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: 35. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 265 ha; 20 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 7 of its 35 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 6 of 35, 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 4.0 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. 58 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 2020, 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.