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Presevo Municipality fire, 22 March 2022 Прешево · Presevo Municipality

Out · last measured on 24 Mar 2022

The fire started on 22 March 2022 in Presevo Municipality, Serbia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 182 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 38th largest in Pčinjski upravni okrug since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 13 in Serbia in 2022, of 31.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Oryahovo · 2024Sjenica Municipality · 2020Presevo Municipality · 2020Presevo Municipality · 2017

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
182ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
22 Mar 2022 – 24 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Mar
2022
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

20°high
55km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 31 Mar.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 129 ha in 2017, 11 ha in 2019, 103 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 170 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Presevo Municipality Прешево 33,449 inhabitants · 9.6 km from the centre where it started
    182 ha
    0.7 %

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 land92 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland7.1 %
  • Agricultural areas0.6 %

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)

Started with Strong wind: 8.9 % of the area in Serbia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
22 Mar 14.3 °C 21 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
23 Mar 15.6 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Mar 19.5 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
25 Mar after 18.7 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Mar after 18.5 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
27 Mar after 20.6 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
28 Mar after 17.5 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
29 Mar after 18.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
30 Mar after 18.6 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
31 Mar after 18.1 °C 48 % 72 km/h 2.4 mm Low 10

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 16.6, a minimum humidity of 21% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 16.6
Minimum humidity 21 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Oryahovo fire, April 2024
262 ha 1 day FWI 16.6 Min. humidity 21 % 244 km away, in 2024

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

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
174 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 19 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (182 ha against a median of 174 ha) and lasted 3 days, against 3 days.

In 5 of 19, 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 3.7 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

2.4 mmfirst rain
31 Mar7 days after it ended
55km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 24 Mar, and on 31 Mar 2.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 19, with a median of 3.7 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 · 15 Mar 2022
After · 31 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 24 March 2022 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1042 µg/m³
20 Mar22 Mar24 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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Serbia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Presevo Municipality fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 March 2022 to 24 March 2022 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 March 2022 to 22 March 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 182 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Presevo Municipality (182 ha, 0.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Presevo Municipality and came within 9.6 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 19.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Serbia (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: 19. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 174 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. In 5 of 19, 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 3.7 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: 193 · 112 · 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 193 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 March 2022 to 22 March 2022. 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 (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.