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Losacio fire, July 2022 Tábara, Ferreruela, Ferreras de Abajo

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2022, 03:14 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2022 in Tábara, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 34,013 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 19 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Zamora since 2016 (of 45 with a page). The largest in Spain in 2022, of 196.

Burnt area
34,013ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
9days
17 Jul 2022 – 25 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
19
municipalities
Started on
17 Jul
2022
Heat detections
883
in a single hotspot: 490 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
35.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

18192025

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
56km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 399 ha in 2016, 276 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Tábara 743 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town where it started
    7,453 ha reached on 18 Jul
    66 %
  2. Ferreruela 409 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    6,804 ha reached on 18 Jul
    72 %
  3. Ferreras de Abajo 461 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    4,629 ha reached on 18 Jul
    52 %
  4. Olmillos de Castro 182 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    4,078 ha reached on 18 Jul
    57 %
  5. Pueblica de Valverde 172 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    1,585 ha reached on 19 Jul
    62 %
  6. Melgar de Tera 331 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town
    1,560 ha reached on 18 Jul
    38 %
  7. Riofrío de Aliste 589 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town
    1,548 ha reached on 18 Jul
    14 %
  8. Villanueva de las Peras 85 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    1,540 ha reached on 18 Jul
    89 %
  9. Santa Croya de Tera 253 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town
    1,282 ha
    61 %
  10. Losacio 90 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    962 ha reached on 18 Jul
    44 %
  11. Pozuelo de Tábara 150 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town
    776 ha reached on 18 Jul
    30 %
  12. Santa María de Valverde 50 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    760 ha reached on 19 Jul
    78 %
  13. Santibáñez de Tera
    261 ha reached on 19 Jul
    14 %
  14. Faramontanos de Tábara 318 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town
    237 ha reached on 19 Jul
    4.3 %
  15. Losacino 189 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town
    222 ha reached on 25 Jul
    5.0 %
  16. Micereces de Tera 404 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town
    166 ha
    4.9 %
  17. Morales de Valverde 156 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    152 ha
    8.4 %
  18. Friera de Valverde 121 inhabitants · 4.9 km from the town
    25 ha
    1.3 %
  19. Moreruela de Tábara 290 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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 scrub33 %
  • Agricultural areas29 %
  • Broadleaved forest15 %
  • Coniferous forest10 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland8.6 %
  • Other natural land3.1 %
  • Mixed forest0.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 31 %

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), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 24,344 ha (the satellite measured 34,013 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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 29 September 2026

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

Also known as
Incendio de la Sierra de la Culebra (julio) · Incendio de Ferreruela de Tábara · Incendio de Losacio (Zamora)
Official area reported: 31,473 ha (the satellite measured 34,013 ha)
Declared extinguished: 31 August 2022

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)
17 Jul 38.4 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jul 34.8 °C 18 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
19 Jul 27.6 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jul 31.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Jul 34.9 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Jul 33.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Jul 33.9 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Jul 33.8 °C 11 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
25 Jul 32.5 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Jul after 30.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jul after 31.3 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Jul after 30.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jul after 31.1 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Jul after 32.8 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Jul after 34.5 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Aug after 36.9 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Aug after 37.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Aug after 35.8 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Aug after 34.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jul 2022
After · 1 Aug 2022

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 18 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1059 µg/m³
1516171819202122232425262728
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 · 883Every 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 Losacio fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 17 July 2022 and 25 July 2022: 9 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 34,013 hectares (340.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 19 municipalities: Tábara (7,453 ha, 66 %); Ferreruela (6,804 ha, 72 %); Ferreras de Abajo (4,629 ha, 52 %); Olmillos de Castro (4,078 ha, 57 %); Pueblica de Valverde (1,585 ha, 62 %); Melgar de Tera (1,560 ha, 38 %); Riofrío de Aliste (1,548 ha, 14 %); Villanueva de las Peras (1,540 ha, 89 %); Santa Croya de Tera (1,282 ha, 61 %); Losacio (962 ha, 44 %); Pozuelo de Tábara (776 ha, 30 %); Santa María de Valverde (760 ha, 78 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Olmillos de Castro. 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 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, class Extreme.
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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

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.