How long did the Chefchaouen fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2025 and 13 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,538 hectares (15.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Chefchaouen (1,542 ha, 0.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.3 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 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.

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 · 2025-08-12 → 2025-08-13

Chefchaouen fire, 12 August 2025 إقليم شفشاون · Chefchaouen

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2025, 12:51 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2025 in Chefchaouen, Morocco, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,538 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima since 2016 (of 53 with a page). The largest in Morocco in 2025, of 3.

Burnt area: 1,538ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 12 Aug 2025 – 13 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit: 1; provinces
Started on: 12 Aug; 2025
Heat detections: 43; in a single hotspot: 200 MW
Danger at start: 58; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 656MW; sum of detected power

Play back 13 Aug 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug13 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1213

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

54km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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 · 4.3 km from the town where it started

1,542 ha reached on 12 Aug

0.4 %

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 forest52 %
Scrub and transitional woodland29 %
Agricultural areas20 %

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	Danger (FWI)
12 Aug	39.0 °C	10 %	54 km/h	Extreme 58
13 Aug	39.7 °C	13 %	37 km/h	Extreme 51
14 Aug after	39.9 °C	10 %	35 km/h	Extreme 52
15 Aug after	40.8 °C	12 %	37 km/h	Extreme 52
16 Aug after	42.2 °C	10 %	37 km/h	Extreme 53
17 Aug after	41.9 °C	11 %	55 km/h	Extreme 62
18 Aug after	40.4 °C	11 %	42 km/h	Extreme 56
19 Aug after	32.4 °C	24 %	45 km/h	Very high 45
20 Aug after	29.5 °C	35 %	40 km/h	High 35
21 Aug after	31.2 °C	30 %	31 km/h	High 33
22 Aug after	34.9 °C	14 %	35 km/h	Very high 43
23 Aug after	33.1 °C	22 %	41 km/h	Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Aug 2025

After · 20 Aug 2025

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 14 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 88 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak88 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM10119 µg/m³

Optical depth0.32

WHO 15

10111213141516

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 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 12 August 2025 and 13 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,538 hectares (15.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Chefchaouen (1,542 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.3 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 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
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