Cantoria fire, March 2023 Cantoria, Arboleas
The fire started on 31 March 2023 in Cantoria, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 181 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 31 March 2023 at 10:33 and declared extinguished on 1 April 2023.
It is the 15th largest in Almeria since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 66 in Spain in 2023, of 124.
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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
- 181ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 31 Mar 2023 – 31 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 31 Mar
- 2023
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 12 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
-
180 ha2.3 %
-
Arboleas 4,215 inhabitants · 4.6 km from the centre1 ha0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Sclerophyllous scrub53 %
- Other natural land45 %
- Agricultural areas1.1 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 31 March 2023 and burned 171 ha (the satellite measured 181 ha).
- Cantoria El Pulpito 31 March 2023 · 10:33 171 ha · extinguished on 1 April 2023 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Mar | 29.1 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Apr after | 24.2 °C | 32 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Apr after | 23.5 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Apr after | 20.4 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Apr after | 17.3 °C | 47 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 Apr after | 16.8 °C | 49 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Apr after | 18.4 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 7 Apr after | 19.3 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Apr after | 23.4 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Apr after | 22.8 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Apr after | 27.1 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 29 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 10 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cantoria fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2023: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 31 March 2023 at 10:33 and declared extinguished on 1 April 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 181 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cantoria (180 ha, 2.3 %); Arboleas (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 4.6 km of the centre of Arboleas, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 171 official ha against 181 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.