How long did the Benuza fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2016 and 7 September 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 262 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Benuza (262 ha, 1.5 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.0 km of Benuza. 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 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

ES · Spain · 2016-09-06 → 2016-09-07

Benuza fire, September 2016 Benuza

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2016, 02:30 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2016 in Benuza, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 262 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 44th largest in León since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 41 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

Burnt area: 262ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 6 Sept 2016 – 7 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 6 Sept; 2016
Heat detections: 20; in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 304MW; sum of detected power

Play back 7 Sept 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept7 Sept

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

30°high

42km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 20.4 mm on 13 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Benuza 457 inhabitants · 4.0 km from the town where it started

262 ha reached on 6 Sept

1.5 %

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

Other natural land87 %
Broadleaved forest8.8 %
Scrub and transitional woodland4.2 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 5 September 2016 and burned 468 ha (the satellite measured 262 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Benuza Las Quintas 5 September 2016 · 21:50 468 ha · extinguished on 8 September 2016 · cause: arson

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)
6 Sept	29.5 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
7 Sept	27.3 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
8 Sept after	18.1 °C	58 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
9 Sept after	19.8 °C	32 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
10 Sept after	20.5 °C	46 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
11 Sept after	22.6 °C	39 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
12 Sept after	24.6 °C	27 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Sept after	15.5 °C	57 %	46 km/h	20.4 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 30 Aug 2016

After · 14 Sept 2016

Before After

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 7 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak45 µg/m³

Days over the guideline3 days

PM1065 µg/m³

WHO 15

45678910

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 · 20Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Benuza fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2016 and 7 September 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 262 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Benuza (262 ha, 1.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.0 km of Benuza. 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 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

MITECO · Incendios forestales ↗
Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned