How long did the Chefchaouen fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 7 September 2016 and 8 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 510 hectares (5.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Chefchaouen (511 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 28.9 km of Chefchaouen. 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Morocco (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

MA · Morocco · 2016-09-07 → 2016-09-08

Chefchaouen fire, 7 September 2016 إقليم شفشاون · Chefchaouen

Out · last detection 8 Sept 2016, 13:33 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2016 in Chefchaouen, Morocco, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 510 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 2 in Morocco in 2016, of 12.

Burnt area: 510ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 7 Sept 2016 – 8 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; provinces
Started on: 7 Sept; 2016
Heat detections: 52; in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Sept 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept8 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

31°high

28km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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

Chefchaouen إقليم شفشاون 412,713 inhabitants · 28.9 km from the town where it started

511 ha reached on 7 Sept

0.1 %

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

Broadleaved forest80 %
Agricultural areas18 %
Coniferous forest1.4 %
Scrub and transitional woodland0.6 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
7 Sept	31.1 °C	33 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
8 Sept	29.8 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
9 Sept after	28.7 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
10 Sept after	28.0 °C	29 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
11 Sept after	27.3 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Sept after	27.8 °C	37 %	26 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 21
13 Sept after	23.0 °C	37 %	52 km/h	0.8 mm	High 22
14 Sept after	19.0 °C	36 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
15 Sept after	20.8 °C	36 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
16 Sept after	22.5 °C	33 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
17 Sept after	23.7 °C	41 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
18 Sept after	26.0 °C	36 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 31 Aug 2016

After · 15 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 115 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak115 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM10144 µg/m³

WHO 15

567891011

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 · 52Every 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 Morocco ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chefchaouen fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 7 September 2016 and 8 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 510 hectares (5.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Chefchaouen (511 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 28.9 km of Chefchaouen. 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Morocco (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: 15 · 150

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?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 15 · 150.

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 ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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