Ifrane fire, July 2021 إقليم إفران · Ifrane, Sefrou
The fire started on 13 July 2021 in Ifrane, Morocco, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 626 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Fez-Meknes since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 2 in Morocco in 2021, of 10.
- Burnt area
- 626ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 13 Jul 2021 – 13 Jul 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- provinces
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 45
- in a single hotspot: 90 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Protected area
- 42%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 17 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
382 ha reached on 10 Jul0.1 %
-
Sefrou إقليم صفرو246 ha reached on 10 Jul0.1 %
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 forest70 %
- Mixed forest30 %
Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 42 %
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 | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 28.6 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Jul after | 33.9 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Jul after | 32.6 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 1.7 mm | High 26 |
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 12 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 52: 3.5 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 · 45Every 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 Ifrane fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 13 July 2021 and 13 July 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 626 hectares (6.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ifrane (382 ha, 0.1 %); Sefrou (246 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
- 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
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 (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.