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Varshets fire, October 2018 Вършец · Berkovitsa, Varshets

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2018, 11:48 UTC

The fire started on 26 October 2018 in Varshets, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 496 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Montana since 2016 (of 19 with a page). The largest in Bulgaria in 2018, of 5.

The power measured by the satellite is low (6.8 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
496ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
26 Oct 2018 – 28 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Oct
2018
Heat detections
8
in a single hotspot: 7 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Energy released
25MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Oct28 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2627

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

The weather it burned in

24°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

  1. Berkovitsa Берковица 1,147 inhabitants · 5.5 km from the town
    331 ha reached on 27 Oct
    0.7 %
  2. Varshets Вършец 296 inhabitants · 10.7 km from the town where it started
    165 ha reached on 26 Oct
    0.7 %

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

  • Broadleaved forest56 %
  • Agricultural areas33 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland8.9 %
  • Other natural land2.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 69 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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)
26 Oct 20.4 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
27 Oct 23.7 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
28 Oct 23.3 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Oct after 24.7 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
30 Oct after 24.6 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
31 Oct after 24.0 °C 51 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
1 Nov after 21.5 °C 61 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
2 Nov after 18.9 °C 76 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
3 Nov after 18.2 °C 68 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
4 Nov after 16.6 °C 54 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
5 Nov after 15.3 °C 59 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
6 Nov after 12.5 °C 74 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
7 Nov after 14.7 °C 70 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Oct 2018
After · 4 Nov 2018

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 · 8Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Bulgaria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Varshets fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 26 October 2018 and 28 October 2018: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 496 hectares (5.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Berkovitsa (331 ha, 0.7 %); Varshets (165 ha, 0.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.5 km of Berkovitsa. 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 23.7 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
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.

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

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
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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 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 (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.