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Aranjuez fire, June 2016 Aranjuez

Out · last measured on 12 Jun 2016

The fire started on 12 June 2016 in Aranjuez, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 156 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 June 2016 at 15:54 and declared extinguished on 10 June 2016.

It is the 14th largest in Madrid since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 56 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
156ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
12 Jun 2016 – 12 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Jun
2016
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
37km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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. Aranjuez 63,040 inhabitants · 23.5 km from the town where it started
    156 ha
    0.8 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub69 %
  • Other natural land17 %
  • Agricultural areas15 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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 10 June 2016 and burned 188 ha (the satellite measured 156 ha).

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)
12 Jun 32.9 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jun after 33.2 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jun after 29.6 °C 30 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Jun after 21.8 °C 37 % 62 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
16 Jun after 21.0 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Jun after 23.6 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Jun after 26.6 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Jun after 30.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jun after 34.1 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Jun after 35.6 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Jun after 37.0 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jun 2016
After · 19 Jun 2016

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 10 June 2016 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1040 µg/m³
101112131415
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Aranjuez fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 June 2016 and 12 June 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 June 2016 at 15:54 and declared extinguished on 10 June 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 156 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Aranjuez (156 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 23.5 km of Aranjuez. 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 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
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
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 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.