Stolac fire, August 2021 Mostar, Stolac, Berkovići
The fire started on 16 August 2021 in Stolac, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 691 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 90th largest in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2016 (of 520 with a page). Number 16 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2021, of 86.
The power measured by the satellite is low (16.5 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
- 691ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 16 Aug 2021 – 18 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 23
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 187MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.6 mm on 25 Aug.
This area had burned before
58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 153 ha in 2016, 251 ha in 2017, 59 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 404 ha that had burned before.
- 251 ha Mostar fire, August 2017 267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 153 ha Stolac fire, August 2016 365 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 59 ha Stolac fire, April 2020 204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
342 ha reached on 17 Aug0.3 %
-
Stolac where it started338 ha reached on 16 Aug1.5 %
-
11 ha0.0 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub68 %
- Other natural land29 %
- Coniferous forest2.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 37.3 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Aug | 33.8 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 18 Aug | 29.3 °C | 45 % | 42 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 21 |
| 19 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Aug after | 35.5 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Aug after | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Aug after | 25.1 °C | 61 % | 27 km/h | 10.6 mm | Very low 1 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 23Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Stolac fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 16 August 2021 and 18 August 2021: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 691 hectares (6.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mostar (342 ha, 0.3 %); Stolac (338 ha, 1.5 %); Berkovići (11 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bosnia & Herzegovina (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: 123 · 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
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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.