Lobios fire, 16 September 2020 Lobios, Muíños
The fire started on 16 September 2020 in Lobios, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 394 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 16 September 2020 at 21:35 and declared extinguished on 17 September 2020.
It is the 49th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 26 in Spain in 2020, of 89.
The power measured by the satellite is low (1.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 394ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 16 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 1 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 4MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
17 Sept 2020 · 4 MW · 5
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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.0 mm on 18 Sept.
This area had burned before
12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 48 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
327 ha reached on 17 Sept1.9 %
-
Muíños 1,385 inhabitants · 6.2 km from the centre67 ha reached on 17 Sept0.6 %
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 land100 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Baixa Limia ES1130001
- ZEPA Baixa Limia - Serra do Xurés ES0000376
- LIC Peneda / Gerês PTCON0001
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 16 September 2020 and burned 378 ha (the satellite measured 394 ha).
- Lobios 16 September 2020 · 21:35 378 ha · extinguished on 17 September 2020 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sept | 22.8 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 17 Sept | 22.1 °C | 50 % | 52 km/h | 22.7 mm | Very low 1 |
| 18 Sept after | 18.9 °C | 57 % | 35 km/h | 9.0 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 14 September 2020 the air beside the fire reached 19 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 · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,240 haMuíñosOctober 2017 · 2 days · 1 km away
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 22 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 27 km away
- 24,471 haMonterreiAugust 2025 · 8 days · 37 km away
- 2,728 haCabeceiras de Basto Cavez14 September 2024 · 6 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lobios fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 16 September 2020 and 17 September 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 16 September 2020 at 21:35 and declared extinguished on 17 September 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 394 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lobios (327 ha, 1.9 %); Muíños (67 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 6.2 km of the centre of Muíños, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 22.8 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
- 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. 5 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 378 official ha against 394 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.