Burned area
satellite only1,531ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BG · Bulgaria · –
Topolovgrad fire, September 2020 Тополовград · Topolovgrad, Radnevo
Out · last detection 15 Sept 2020, 11:28 UTC
The fire started on 14 September 2020 in Topolovgrad, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,531 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Haskovo since 2016 (of 46 with a page). Number 2 in Bulgaria in 2020, of 15.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only2days
14 Sept 2020 to 15 Sept 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 15 Sept 2020, 11:28 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only14 Sept 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 14 Sept 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only23
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 458 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 14 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,182MW
Total radiative power on 14 September 2020; hotspots that day: 12.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 14 Sept 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model59.2FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 9.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 14 Sept 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model30.6°C · 22% RH
High of 30.6 °C and minimum humidity of 22% on 14 September 2020; gusts of 48 km/h on 14 September 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 14 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 1,531 ha
- Dates
- 14 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
- Name
- Topolovgrad
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/topolovgrad-2020-09?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire topolovgrad-2020-09.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-09-14 | 12 | 1,182 | 30.6 | 18.3 | 22 | 23.5 | 47.5 | 0 | 59.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-15 | 11 | 174 | 29.7 | 18.9 | 33 | 23.2 | 45.7 | 0 | 53 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-16 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 | 16.2 | 39 | 21.6 | 45 | 0 | 44.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-17 | 0 | 0 | 28.8 | 14.5 | 36 | 13 | 26.6 | 0 | 29.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-18 | 0 | 0 | 26.6 | 16.2 | 38 | 20.6 | 42.5 | 0 | 42.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-19 | 0 | 0 | 22.5 | 12.8 | 26 | 19.1 | 39.2 | 0 | 39.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-20 | 0 | 0 | 23.1 | 8.8 | 29 | 16.8 | 34.9 | 0 | 37.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-21 | 0 | 0 | 25.5 | 12.5 | 37 | 18.6 | 38.2 | 0 | 38.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 25.8 | 13.3 | 33 | 14.2 | 29.2 | 0 | 29 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 27.2 | 11.2 | 37 | 7.7 | 20.9 | 0 | 27.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 14.8 | 41 | 9.2 | 26.3 | 8.7 | 23.9 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 1,531ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 14 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 23
- in a single hotspot: 458 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 678MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
14 Sept15 Sept
15 Sept 2020
How it evolved, day by day
14 Sept
15 Sept
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
48km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.7 mm on 24 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Sofia boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, Wikimedia (Public Domain).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
1,208 ha reached on 14 Sept1.7 %
-
325 ha0.6 %
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
- Agricultural areas73 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland14 %
- Broadleaved forest12 %
- Mixed forest0.7 %
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)
Started with Extreme FWI: 15 % of the area in Bulgaria
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Sept | 30.6 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 15 Sept | 29.7 °C | 33 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 39 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Sept after | 26.6 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Sept after | 22.5 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Sept after | 23.1 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Sept after | 25.5 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 Sept after | 25.8 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Sept after | 27.2 °C | 37 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 41 % | 26 km/h | 8.7 mm | High 24 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 59.2, a minimum humidity of 22% and 9 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.
FWI at the start
59.2
Minimum humidity
22 %
Days without rain
9
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Topolovgrad fire, September 2020
1,531 ha
2 days
FWI 59.2
Min. humidity 22 %
Lyubimets fire, July 2023
109 ha
1 day
FWI 59.7
Min. humidity 22 %
54 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 6.8 mm on 27 Jul.
Svilengrad fire, July 2024
8,124 ha
6 days
FWI 58.9
Min. humidity 25 %
35 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.5 mm on 19 Jul.
Brezovo fire, July 2024
634 ha
2 days
FWI 58.6
Min. humidity 25 %
108 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 19 Jul.
Simeonovgrad fire, July 2024
545 ha
4 days
FWI 57.8
Min. humidity 15 %
32 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 19 Jul.
Elhovo fire, July 2024
839 ha
3 days
FWI 54.4
Min. humidity 27 %
34 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.9 mm on 19 Jul.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 492 ha
- median area
- 26 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.9 mm
- rain at the end (median; 25 of 34 had it)
It was 3.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.
Only 6 of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 34, 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 2.9 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
8.7 mmfirst rain
24 Sept9 days after it ended
48km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 15 Sept, and on 24 Sept 8.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 25 of 34, with a median of 2.9 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 7 Sept 2020
After · 22 Sept 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 13 September 2020 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1025 µg/m³
WHO 15
12 Sept14 Sept16 Sept18 Sept
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 · 23Every 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
- 1,259 haTopolovgrad Тополовград30 August 2016 · 3 days · 15 km away
- 1,446 haHarmanli ХарманлиJune 2024 · 2 days · 23 km away
- 2,719 haHarmanli ХарманлиAugust 2025 · 5 days · 29 km away
- 1,374 haSvilengrad СвиленградAugust 2023 · 2 days · 31 km away
- 8,124 haSvilengrad Свиленград13 July 2024 · 6 days · 35 km away
- 7,848 haElhovo ЕлховоJuly 2025 · 6 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Topolovgrad fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 14 September 2020 and 15 September 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,531 hectares (15.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Topolovgrad (1,208 ha, 1.7 %); Radnevo (325 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Topolovgrad and came within 18.3 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 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (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: 34. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 492 ha; 26 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 6 of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 34, 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 2.9 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: 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 23 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.
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 (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.