How long did the Studenichani fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2026 and 12 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 412 hectares (4.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Studenichani (367 ha, 1.3 %); Zelenikovo (45 ha, 0.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.4 km of Studenichani. 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 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.

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 · 2026-08-12 → 2026-08-12

Studenichani fire, August 2026 Општина Студеничани · Studenichani, Zelenikovo

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2026, 00:54 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2026 in Studenichani, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 412 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Skopje since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 13 in North Macedonia in 2026, of 40.

The power measured by the satellite is low (30.0 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: 412ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 12 Aug 2026 – 12 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 12 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 15; in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 139MW; sum of detected power

Play back 13 Aug 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1213

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

55km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 86 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

Studenichani Општина Студеничани 21,970 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town where it started

367 ha reached on 12 Aug

1.3 %
Zelenikovo Општина Зелениково 3,361 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town

45 ha reached on 13 Aug

0.2 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland53 %
Broadleaved forest39 %
Agricultural areas8.7 %

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)
12 Aug	31.0 °C	24 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
13 Aug after	27.9 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
14 Aug after	26.7 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
15 Aug after	25.2 °C	27 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Aug after	27.9 °C	22 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
17 Aug after	29.9 °C	28 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 Aug after	27.6 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.5 mm	High 29
19 Aug after	28.2 °C	25 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
20 Aug after	31.4 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
21 Aug after	32.5 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Aug after	31.9 °C	27 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Aug 2026

After · 19 Aug 2026

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 12 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak14 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1023 µg/m³

Optical depth0.41

101112131415

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 · 15Every 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 Studenichani fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2026 and 12 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 412 hectares (4.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Studenichani (367 ha, 1.3 %); Zelenikovo (45 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.4 km of Studenichani. 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 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.
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