Alburquerque fire, August 2021 Alburquerque
The fire started on 18 August 2021 in Alburquerque, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 809 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 August 2021 at 17:30 and declared extinguished on 29 August 2021.
It is the 10th largest in Badajoz since 2016 (of 52 with a page). Number 13 in Spain in 2021, of 120.
The power measured by the satellite is low (14.0 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
- 809ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 18 Aug 2021 – 19 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 27
- in a single hotspot: 14 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 120MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 58 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
-
810 ha reached on 19 Aug1.1 %
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 forest32 %
- Agricultural areas28 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub23 %
- Other natural land9.3 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland7.7 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 60 %
- ZEPA Nacimiento del Río Gevora ES0000407
- LIC Río Gevora Alto ES4310022
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.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 18 August 2021 and burned 698 ha (the satellite measured 809 ha).
- Alburquerque Sierra de la Carava 18 August 2021 · 17:30 698 ha · extinguished on 29 August 2021 · cause: negligence
MITECO, Estadística General de Incendios Forestales (EGIF). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 34.8 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 19 Aug | 32.9 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Aug after | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Aug after | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 19 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 27Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 292 haValencia de AlcántaraAugust 2023 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 2,346 haAlburquerque14 August 2025 · 3 days · 24 km away
- 413 haSalorinoAugust 2020 · 1 day · 30 km away
- 354 haBadajozMay 2026 · 1 day · 32 km away
- 488 haMarvão Santo António das AreiasAugust 2020 · 2 days · 33 km away
- 294 haCastelo de Vide Santa Maria da DevesaJune 2026 · 1 day · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Alburquerque fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 18 August 2021 and 19 August 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 August 2021 at 17:30 and declared extinguished on 29 August 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 809 hectares (8.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Alburquerque (810 ha, 1.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Alburquerque. 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 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Spain (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
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 ADM3 (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.