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Candelario fire, July 2022 Candelario, La Garganta

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2022, 03:02 UTC

The fire started on 11 July 2022 in Candelario, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 602 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 11 July 2022 at 16:45 and declared extinguished on 14 September 2022.

It is the 4th largest in Salamanca since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 56 in Spain in 2022, of 196.

Burnt area
602ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
11 Jul 2022 – 14 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Jul
2022
Heat detections
43
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
403MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jul14 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

12131415

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
42km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 24 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Candelario 832 inhabitants · 5.3 km from the town where it started
    534 ha reached on 12 Jul
    8.8 %
  2. La Garganta 353 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town
    69 ha reached on 12 Jul
    2.9 %

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 land84 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub15 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.5 %

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), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 607 ha (the satellite measured 602 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)
11 Jul 28.7 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.8 mm High 27
12 Jul 29.9 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jul 30.8 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jul 32.2 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 38
15 Jul after 30.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.9 mm High 30
16 Jul after 31.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Jul after 30.8 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jul after 27.6 °C 18 % 59 km/h 0.9 mm High 36
19 Jul after 23.0 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Jul after 28.1 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jul after 28.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Jul after 27.6 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul after 28.8 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jul after 28.9 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jul 2022
After · 21 Jul 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 13 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1053 µg/m³
91011121314151617181920
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 · 43Every 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 Candelario fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 11 July 2022 and 14 July 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 11 July 2022 at 16:45 and declared extinguished on 14 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 602 hectares (6.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Candelario (534 ha, 8.8 %); La Garganta (69 ha, 2.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.1 km of La Garganta. 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 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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.

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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.