How long did the Veles fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 23 March 2019 and 28 March 2019: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,252 hectares (12.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Veles (878 ha, 2.0 %); Petrovets (376 ha, 1.9 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 12.4 km of Petrovets. 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 21.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.

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 · 2019-03-23 → 2019-03-28

Veles fire, March 2019 Општина Велес · Veles, Petrovets

Out · last detection 29 Mar 2019, 12:18 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2019 in Veles, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,252 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Vardar since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 5 in North Macedonia in 2019, of 77.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.5 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: 1,252ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 6days; 23 Mar 2019 – 28 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 23 Mar; 2019
Heat detections: 111; in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 507MW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 Mar 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar28 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

232425272829

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

The weather it burned in

21°high

71km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 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

Veles Општина Велес 48,463 inhabitants · 15.4 km from the town where it started

878 ha reached on 18 Mar

2.0 %
Petrovets Општина Петровец 9,150 inhabitants · 12.4 km from the town

376 ha reached on 22 Mar

1.9 %

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 woodland52 %
Broadleaved forest31 %
Agricultural areas16 %

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)
23 Mar	18.6 °C	22 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
24 Mar	19.3 °C	21 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
25 Mar	21.3 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
26 Mar	11.4 °C	39 %	71 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 21
27 Mar	12.5 °C	21 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
28 Mar	14.4 °C	21 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
29 Mar after	16.8 °C	12 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
30 Mar after	17.9 °C	18 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
31 Mar after	19.7 °C	22 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
1 Apr after	22.3 °C	13 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
2 Apr after	20.1 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
3 Apr after	17.3 °C	32 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
4 Apr after	16.5 °C	31 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
5 Apr after	13.2 °C	47 %	59 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 20
6 Apr after	17.6 °C	29 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
7 Apr after	17.7 °C	32 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Mar 2019

After · 4 Apr 2019

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 26 March 2019 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³

Days over the guideline10 days

PM1054 µg/m³

WHO 15

2122232425262728293031

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 · 111Every 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 Veles fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 23 March 2019 and 28 March 2019: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,252 hectares (12.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Veles (878 ha, 2.0 %); Petrovets (376 ha, 1.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 12.4 km of Petrovets. 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 21.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
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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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