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Vratsa fire, October 2018 Враца · Vratsa

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2018, 00:05 UTC

The fire started on 27 October 2018 in Vratsa, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 125 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 13th largest in Vratsa since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 5 in Bulgaria in 2018, of 5.

Burnt area
125ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
27 Oct 2018 – 28 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Oct
2018
Heat detections
6
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
127MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Oct28 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2728

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
37km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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

  1. Vratsa Враца 58,721 inhabitants · 8.0 km from the town where it started
    125 ha reached on 27 Oct
    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

  • Agricultural areas61 %
  • Broadleaved forest39 %

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)
27 Oct 25.0 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Oct 24.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Oct after 25.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Oct after 25.7 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
31 Oct after 24.6 °C 52 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
1 Nov after 21.7 °C 65 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
2 Nov after 19.5 °C 74 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
3 Nov after 18.3 °C 71 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
4 Nov after 16.9 °C 62 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
5 Nov after 15.2 °C 66 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
6 Nov after 12.8 °C 79 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
7 Nov after 14.9 °C 74 % 22 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 · 20 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 31 October 2018 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1040 µg/m³
25262728293031
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 · 6Every 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 Vratsa fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 27 October 2018 and 28 October 2018: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 125 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vratsa (125 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 8.0 km of Vratsa. 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 25.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.