Deurne fire, April 2020 Deurne, Horst aan de Maas
The fire started on 20 April 2020 in Deurne, Netherlands, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 649 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
The largest in Netherlands in 2020, of 2.
- Burnt area
- 649ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 20 Apr 2020 – 22 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Apr
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 60
- in a single hotspot: 157 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 28 Apr.
This area had burned before
7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Deurne where it started645 ha reached on 20 Apr5.5 %
-
3 ha reached on 21 Apr0.0 %
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 land72 %
- Broadleaved forest21 %
- Other land cover5.4 %
- Agricultural areas1.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 96 %
- ZEPA + LIC Deurnsche Peel & Mariapeel NL1000026
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Apr | 18.9 °C | 25 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Apr | 20.1 °C | 24 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Apr | 22.1 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Apr after | 23.2 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Apr after | 19.8 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 25 Apr after | 15.1 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Apr after | 17.8 °C | 37 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Apr after | 22.7 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Apr after | 15.4 °C | 62 % | 32 km/h | 4.1 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.
Detections table · 60Every 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 Deurne fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 20 April 2020 and 22 April 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 649 hectares (6.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Deurne (645 ha, 5.5 %); Horst aan de Maas (3 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 22.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Netherlands (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 ADM2 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.