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Cebreros fire, August 2021 Cebreros, El Tiemblo

Out · last detection 9 Aug 2021, 14:00 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2021 in Cebreros, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 763 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 6 August 2021 at 18:12 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2021.

It is the 12th largest in Ávila since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 15 in Spain in 2021, of 120.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
763ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
6 Aug 2021 – 9 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Aug
2021
Heat detections
45
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
363MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug9 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

79

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
45km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 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. Cebreros 3,345 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town where it started
    675 ha reached on 7 Aug
    4.9 %
  2. El Tiemblo 4,582 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    88 ha reached on 7 Aug
    1.2 %

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

  • Agricultural areas45 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub26 %
  • Mixed forest12 %
  • Other natural land8.6 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland7.4 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 72 %

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 6 August 2021 and burned 622 ha (the satellite measured 763 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)
6 Aug 30.2 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug 27.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Aug 28.1 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Aug 30.8 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug after 33.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug after 34.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug after 34.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Aug after 38.3 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Aug after 38.3 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Aug after 37.5 °C 6 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
16 Aug after 33.0 °C 10 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
17 Aug after 31.3 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Aug after 31.0 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug after 31.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jul 2021
After · 16 Aug 2021

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 11 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1077 µg/m³
456789101112
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 · 45Every 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 Cebreros fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 6 August 2021 and 9 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 6 August 2021 at 18:12 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 763 hectares (7.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cebreros (675 ha, 4.9 %); El Tiemblo (88 ha, 1.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.4 km of El Tiemblo. 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 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.