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Benahavís fire, July 2026 Benahavís

Out · last measured on 9 Jul 2026

The fire started on 9 July 2026 in Benahavís, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 185 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Malaga since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 119 in Spain in 2026, of 195.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
185ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
9 Jul 2026 – 9 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Jul
2026
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Natura 2000
1%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
23km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 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. Benahavís 9,472 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town where it started
    185 ha
    1.3 %

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

  • Artificial surfaces47 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub29 %
  • Agricultural areas18 %
  • Coniferous forest6.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 1 %

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.

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)
9 Jul 37.3 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Jul after 35.0 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Jul after 30.9 °C 26 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Jul after 33.2 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
13 Jul after 33.5 °C 25 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Jul after 35.3 °C 20 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
15 Jul after 36.0 °C 15 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Jul after 39.8 °C 14 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Jul after 37.8 °C 16 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jul after 38.3 °C 17 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Jul after 36.8 °C 16 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Jul 2026
After · 16 Jul 2026

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 12 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1024 µg/m³
Optical depth0.30
789101112
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 Benahavís fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 9 July 2026 and 9 July 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 185 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Benahavís (185 ha, 1.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.0 km of Benahavís. 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 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 23 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
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.