How long did the Lobios fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2020 and 10 August 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 8 August 2020 at 08:00 and declared extinguished on 12 August 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 430 hectares (4.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Lobios (430 ha, 2.6 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.9 km of Lobios. 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 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 34 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 Spain (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

ES · Spain · 2020-08-08 → 2020-08-10

Lobios fire, August 2020 Lobios

Out · last detection 10 Aug 2020, 03:02 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2020 in Lobios, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 430 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 8 August 2020 at 08:00 and declared extinguished on 12 August 2020.

It is the 46th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 22 in Spain in 2020, of 89.

Burnt area: 430ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 8 Aug 2020 – 10 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 8 Aug; 2020
Heat detections: 31; in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start: 25; High · FWI index
Energy released: 607MW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Aug 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug10 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

8910

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

The weather it burned in

26°high

34km/h · peak gust

44%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 15 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Lobios 1,776 inhabitants · 4.9 km from the town where it started

430 ha reached on 8 Aug

2.6 %

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 land100 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 97 %

LIC Baixa Limia ES1130001
ZEPA Baixa Limia - Serra do Xurés ES0000376

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 8 August 2020 and burned 457 ha (the satellite measured 430 ha).

Lobios Ludeiros 8 August 2020 · 08:00 457 ha · extinguished on 12 August 2020 · cause: arson

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)
8 Aug	26.1 °C	44 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
9 Aug	23.0 °C	54 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
10 Aug	23.8 °C	53 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
11 Aug after	22.4 °C	51 %	40 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 20
12 Aug after	19.7 °C	58 %	34 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 14
13 Aug after	21.6 °C	46 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
14 Aug after	21.3 °C	48 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
15 Aug after	17.6 °C	57 %	44 km/h	4.4 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 1 Aug 2020

After · 17 Aug 2020

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 9 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak38 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1061 µg/m³

WHO 15

678910111213

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 31Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lobios fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2020 and 10 August 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 8 August 2020 at 08:00 and declared extinguished on 12 August 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 430 hectares (4.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Lobios (430 ha, 2.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.9 km of Lobios. 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 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 34 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 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

MITECO · Incendios forestales ↗
Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned