Highland fire, April 2020 Highland
The fire started on 17 April 2020 in Highland, United Kingdom, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 295 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 27th largest in Scotland since 2016 (of 49 with a page). Number 6 in United Kingdom in 2020, of 16.
The power measured by the satellite is low (5.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
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- Burnt area
- 295ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 17 Apr 2020 – 18 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Apr
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 6 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 19MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 26 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Highland where it started294 ha reached on 17 Apr0.0 %
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
- Other natural land95 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland5.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Apr | 13.1 °C | 51 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 19 Apr after | 15.9 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 20 Apr after | 15.5 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 21 Apr after | 15.9 °C | 43 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 22 Apr after | 16.5 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 23 Apr after | 17.8 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 24 Apr after | 16.5 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 25 Apr after | 14.5 °C | 50 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Apr after | 10.5 °C | 64 % | 41 km/h | 3.4 mm | Very low 0 |
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 15 April 2020 the air beside the fire reached 8 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 · 15Every 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 Highland fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 April 2020 to 18 April 2020 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 April 2020 to 18 April 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 295 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Highland (294 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 13.1 °C, humidity dropped to 51 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United Kingdom (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: 999 · 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 April 2020 to 18 April 2020. 15 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- 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 (Open Government Licence v3.0). 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.