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Probishtip fire, 29 July 2024 Општина Пробиштип · Probishtip

Out · last measured on 29 Jul 2024

The fire started on 29 July 2024 in Probishtip, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 273 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in East since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 31 in North Macedonia in 2024, of 69.

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
273ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
29 Jul 2024 – 29 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Jul
2024
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days 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

  1. Probishtip Општина Пробиштип 13,417 inhabitants · 5.9 km from the town where it started
    273 ha
    0.8 %

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

  • Agricultural areas99 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland1.5 %

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 Jul 34.9 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Jul after 31.1 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Jul after 33.4 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 35.4 °C 8 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Aug after 37.6 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Aug after 33.7 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 46
4 Aug after 30.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Aug after 32.0 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug after 31.5 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Aug after 33.3 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Aug after 36.7 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jul 2024
After · 5 Aug 2024

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 1 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1027 µg/m³
Optical depth0.54
27282930311
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 North Macedonia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Probishtip fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2024 and 29 July 2024: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 273 hectares (2.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Probishtip (273 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.9 km of Probishtip. 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 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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.