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Jerte fire, August 2016 Tornavacas, Jerte, Guijo de Santa Bárbara

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2016, 13:54 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2016 in Jerte, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,006 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 August 2016 at 21:25 and declared extinguished on 10 September 2016.

It is the 19th largest in Cáceres since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 15 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

Burnt area
1,006ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
18 Aug 2016 – 22 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
18 Aug
2016
Heat detections
142
in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

19202122

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

28°high
45km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 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

  1. Tornavacas 989 inhabitants · 5.0 km from the town
    636 ha reached on 19 Aug
    8.3 %
  2. Jerte 1,189 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town where it started
    359 ha reached on 19 Aug
    6.1 %
  3. Guijo de Santa Bárbara 386 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town
    11 ha
    0.3 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub70 %
  • Other natural land29 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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 18 August 2016 and burned 1,094 ha (the satellite measured 1,006 ha).

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incendio del Jerte · Incendio de la Reserva Natural de la Garganta de los Infiernos · Incendio del Valle del Jerte
Official area reported: 900 ha (the satellite measured 1,006 ha)
Declared stabilised: 22 August 2016

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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 Aug 24.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Aug 23.2 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Aug 22.9 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug 25.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Aug 27.9 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 28.0 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Aug after 27.1 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Aug after 26.2 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Aug after 23.7 °C 34 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 11 Aug 2016
After · 29 Aug 2016

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 · 142Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Jerte fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 18 August 2016 and 22 August 2016: 5 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 August 2016 at 21:25 and declared extinguished on 10 September 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,006 hectares (10.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tornavacas (636 ha, 8.3 %); Jerte (359 ha, 6.1 %); Guijo de Santa Bárbara (11 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.2 km of Guijo de Santa Bárbara. 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 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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

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.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.