How long did the Chefchaouen fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2023 and 28 July 2023: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 211 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Chefchaouen (212 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 21.7 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 25.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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 · 2023-07-26 → 2023-07-28

Chefchaouen fire, July 2023 إقليم شفشاون · Chefchaouen

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2023, 12:57 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2023 in Chefchaouen, Morocco, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 211 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 31th largest in Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 8 in Morocco in 2023, of 13.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.0 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: 211ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 26 Jul 2023 – 28 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit: 1; provinces
Started on: 26 Jul; 2023
Heat detections: 3; in a single hotspot: 8 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 10MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul28 Jul

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

25°high

36km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 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 · 21.7 km from the town where it started

212 ha reached on 28 Jul

0.0 %

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 forest63 %
Scrub and transitional woodland35 %
Coniferous forest1.0 %

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)
26 Jul	25.1 °C	30 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 Jul	23.4 °C	54 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
28 Jul	24.5 °C	41 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
29 Jul after	27.4 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
30 Jul after	31.3 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
31 Jul after	30.7 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
1 Aug after	31.6 °C	15 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
2 Aug after	31.0 °C	19 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
3 Aug after	28.9 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
4 Aug after	26.6 °C	26 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
5 Aug after	23.1 °C	41 %	41 km/h	0.6 mm	High 25
6 Aug after	26.4 °C	43 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
7 Aug after	25.3 °C	46 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Jul 2023

After · 4 Aug 2023

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 28 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1047 µg/m³

Optical depth0.44

WHO 15

2425262728293031

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 · 3Every 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 26 July 2023 and 28 July 2023: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 211 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Chefchaouen (212 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 21.7 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 25.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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?

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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 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