How long did the Prilep fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 29 June 2025 and 30 June 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 210 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Prilep (210 ha, 0.2 %); Novatsi (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 26.6 km of Prilep. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 25.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of North Macedonia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

MK · North Macedonia · 2025-06-29 → 2025-06-30

Prilep fire, June 2025 Општина Прилеп · Prilep, Novatsi

Out · last detection 1 Jul 2025, 11:17 UTC

The fire started on 29 June 2025 in Prilep, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 210 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 47th largest in Pelagonia since 2016 (of 76 with a page). Number 20 in North Macedonia in 2025, of 37.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.8 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: 210ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 29 Jun 2025 – 30 Jun 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 29 Jun; 2025
Heat detections: 25; in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start: 21; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 9MW; detected power per day, on average

Play back 1 Jul 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jun30 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

29 Jun 30 Jun 1 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

26°high

44km/h · peak gust

32%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Prilep Општина Прилеп 69,025 inhabitants · 26.6 km from the town where it started

210 ha reached on 29 Jun

0.2 %
Novatsi Општина Новаци 2,648 inhabitants · 40.4 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

Coniferous forest93 %
Mixed forest5.2 %
Broadleaved forest1.9 %

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)
29 Jun	25.6 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
30 Jun	25.9 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
1 Jul after	27.1 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
2 Jul after	26.9 °C	27 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
3 Jul after	26.7 °C	35 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
4 Jul after	27.1 °C	39 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
5 Jul after	28.2 °C	35 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
6 Jul after	28.1 °C	35 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	High 24
7 Jul after	29.3 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
8 Jul after	28.5 °C	30 %	42 km/h	0.3 mm	High 27
9 Jul after	24.4 °C	32 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
10 Jul after	18.7 °C	40 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 22 Jun 2025

After · 7 Jul 2025

Before After

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 27 June 2025 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1014 µg/m³

Optical depth0.47

27282930123

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 · 25Every 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

All fires in North Macedonia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Prilep fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 29 June 2025 and 30 June 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 210 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Prilep (210 ha, 0.2 %); Novatsi (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 26.6 km of Prilep. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 25.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of North Macedonia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

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

Центар за управување со кризи ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.

Where it burned