Estepona fire, August 2019 Estepona
The fire started on 19 August 2019 in Estepona, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 326 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 19 August 2019 at 11:18 and declared extinguished on 23 August 2019.
It is the 7th largest in Malaga since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 25 in Spain in 2019, of 102.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 326ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 19 Aug 2019 – 20 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 28
- in a single hotspot: 120 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 373MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 26 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
327 ha reached on 19 Aug2.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Sclerophyllous scrub86 %
- Mixed forest5.5 %
- Agricultural areas5.2 %
- Broadleaved forest3.1 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 14 %
- LIC Río del Padrón ES6170026
- LIC Sierras Bermeja y Real ES6170010
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 19 August 2019 and burned 323 ha (the satellite measured 326 ha).
- Estepona loma de la portezuela/peñas blancas 19 August 2019 · 11:18 323 ha · extinguished on 23 August 2019 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug | 32.2 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Aug | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 55 % | 48 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 59 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 51 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 50 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 60 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 70 % | 40 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 6 |
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 20 August 2019 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily 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 · 28Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,296 haSierra Bermeja JubriqueSeptember 2021 · 5 days · 7 km away
- 5,042 haPujerra JúzcarJune 2022 · 4 days · 8 km away
- 424 haJubriqueJuly 2021 · 2 days · 9 km away
- 343 haBenahavísSeptember 2026 · 2 days · 10 km away
- 542 haIgualejaSeptember 2026 · 1 day · 20 km away
- 446 haSan RoqueJuly 2016 · 2 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Estepona fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 19 August 2019 and 20 August 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 19 August 2019 at 11:18 and declared extinguished on 23 August 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 326 hectares (3.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Estepona (327 ha, 2.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Estepona and came within 4.0 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
- 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 28 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 323 official ha against 326 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.