Culla fire, December 2017 Culla, la Torre d'En Besora
The fire started on 30 December 2017 in Culla, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 424 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 10th largest in Castelló / Castellón since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 57 in Spain in 2017, of 144.
- Burnt area
- 424ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 30 Dec 2017 – 30 Dec 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Dec
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 12
- in a single hotspot: 37 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 26MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 6 Jan.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
340 ha reached on 29 Dec2.9 %
-
la Torre d'En Besora 164 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town85 ha reached on 30 Dec7.0 %
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
- Other natural land78 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub7.8 %
- Agricultural areas4.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 93 %
- LIC Serra d'en Galceràn ES5223055
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 29 December 2017 and burned 600 ha (the satellite measured 424 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Culla Sobalma-Serra Esparraguera 29 December 2017 · 13:49 600 ha · extinguished on 4 January 2018 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Dec | 21.6 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 31 Dec after | 15.0 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 1 Jan after | 17.3 °C | 15 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Jan after | 19.3 °C | 36 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Jan after | 22.0 °C | 36 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 4 Jan after | 22.4 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 Jan after | 18.5 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Jan after | 11.9 °C | 61 % | 34 km/h | 5.1 mm | Very low 1 |
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 31 December 2017 the air beside the fire reached 5 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)
Detections table · 12Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Culla fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 30 December 2017 and 30 December 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 424 hectares (4.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Culla (340 ha, 2.9 %); la Torre d'En Besora (85 ha, 7.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.5 km of la Torre d'En Besora. 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 21.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- 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.
Report an error
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.