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Ateca fire, July 2022 Ateca, Moros, Bubierca

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2022, 12:51 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2022 in Ateca, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 14,159 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 11 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Zaragoza since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 4 in Spain in 2022, of 196.

Burnt area
14,159ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
8days
18 Jul 2022 – 25 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
11
municipalities
Started on
18 Jul
2022
Heat detections
366
in a single hotspot: 311 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
13.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1920

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
56km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 3 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ateca 1,785 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town where it started
    5,986 ha reached on 19 Jul
    71 %
  2. Moros 274 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    4,136 ha reached on 19 Jul
    78 %
  3. Bubierca 66 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town
    1,793 ha reached on 19 Jul
    60 %
  4. Villalengua 295 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town
    874 ha reached on 19 Jul
    22 %
  5. Alhama de Aragón 917 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the town
    518 ha reached on 19 Jul
    17 %
  6. Embid de Ariza 28 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town
    369 ha reached on 19 Jul
    8.9 %
  7. Villarroya de la Sierra 397 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town
    264 ha
    2.9 %
  8. Cetina 534 inhabitants · 4.6 km from the town
    147 ha reached on 20 Jul
    1.9 %
  9. Terrer 580 inhabitants · 4.0 km from the town
    48 ha reached on 20 Jul
    1.4 %
  10. Castejón de las Armas 87 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town
    30 ha reached on 20 Jul
    1.8 %
  11. Contamina
    9 ha
    0.6 %

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 scrub46 %
  • Agricultural areas25 %
  • Coniferous forest15 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland6.5 %
  • Broadleaved forest3.8 %
  • Mixed forest2.5 %
  • Other natural land1.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

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 July 2022 and burned 11,019 ha (the satellite measured 14,159 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incendio de Ateca y Bubierca · Incendio de Moros · Incendio del Alto Jalón
Official area reported: 14,000 ha (the satellite measured 14,159 ha)

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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 Jul 39.5 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jul 35.9 °C 11 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
20 Jul 32.7 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jul 36.9 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Jul 36.7 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
23 Jul 33.8 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Jul 39.7 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Jul 35.0 °C 12 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
26 Jul after 30.7 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Jul after 30.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jul after 33.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jul after 30.8 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Jul after 32.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul after 33.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Aug after 34.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Aug after 37.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Aug after 35.2 °C 19 % 45 km/h 1.8 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jul 2022
After · 1 Aug 2022

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 · 366Every 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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ateca fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 18 July 2022 and 25 July 2022: 8 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 14,159 hectares (141.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 11 municipalities: Ateca (5,986 ha, 71 %); Moros (4,136 ha, 78 %); Bubierca (1,793 ha, 60 %); Villalengua (874 ha, 22 %); Alhama de Aragón (518 ha, 17 %); Embid de Ariza (369 ha, 8.9 %); Villarroya de la Sierra (264 ha, 2.9 %); Cetina (147 ha, 1.9 %); Terrer (48 ha, 1.4 %); Castejón de las Armas (30 ha, 1.8 %); Contamina (9 ha, 0.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Moros. 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 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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
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.