Burned area
satellite only208ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
DZ · Algeria ·
Medjez Sfa fire, 21 August 2020 مجاز الصفاء · Medjez Sfa, Mechroha
Out · last detection 21 Aug 2020, 12:36 UTC
The fire started on 21 August 2020 in Medjez Sfa, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 208 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Souk Ahras since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 137 in Algeria in 2020, of 236.
The power measured by the satellite is low (21.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only1day
21 Aug 2020 to 21 Aug 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 21 Aug 2020, 12:36 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only21 Aug 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 21 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only1
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 22 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 21 Aug 2020 – 21 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only22MW
Total radiative power on 21 August 2020; hotspots that day: 1.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 21 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model54.4FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 6.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 21 Aug 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model41.0°C · 18% RH
High of 41.0 °C and minimum humidity of 18% on 21 August 2020; gusts of 41 km/h on 21 August 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 21 Aug 2020 – 21 Aug 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 208 ha
- Dates
- 21 Aug 2020 – 21 Aug 2020
- Name
- Medjez Sfa
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/medjez-sfa-2020-08?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire medjez-sfa-2020-08.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-08-21 | 1 | 22 | 41 | 24.3 | 18 | 12.3 | 41.4 | 0.9 | 54.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-08-22 | 0 | 0 | 34.9 | 23.8 | 41 | 13.5 | 38.5 | 0 | 35.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-23 | 0 | 0 | 31.4 | 21.9 | 48 | 14.8 | 40.3 | 0 | 37.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-24 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 | 20 | 40 | 16 | 42.8 | 0 | 35 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-25 | 0 | 0 | 31.2 | 19 | 33 | 14 | 39.6 | 0 | 36.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-26 | 0 | 0 | 32.3 | 15.7 | 24 | 12.8 | 36 | 0 | 41.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-27 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 17.9 | 23 | 13.4 | 37.8 | 0 | 44.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-28 | 0 | 0 | 35.8 | 18.5 | 26 | 8.2 | 31.3 | 0.3 | 36.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-29 | 0 | 0 | 38.6 | 23.8 | 17 | 11.3 | 39.2 | 0 | 58.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2020-08-30 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 24.1 | 36 | 18.6 | 43.6 | 0 | 41.6 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-31 | 0 | 0 | 24.8 | 18.4 | 60 | 18.4 | 46.1 | 3.4 | 6 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 208ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 21 Aug 2020 – 21 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 22MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
21 Aug21 Aug
How it evolved, day by day
21 Aug 2020 · 22 MW · 1
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
41°high
41km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 31 Aug.
This area had burned before
19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
139 ha reached on 21 Aug1.0 %
-
70 ha0.3 %
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
- Mixed forest70 %
- Other natural land29 %
- Broadleaved forest1.0 %
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)
Started with Extreme FWI: 48 % of the area in Algeria
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 41.0 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.9 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 48 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 40 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Aug after | 33.6 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 37 |
| 29 Aug after | 38.6 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 30 Aug after | 31.3 °C | 36 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 60 % | 46 km/h | 3.4 mm | Low 6 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 54.4, a minimum humidity of 18% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.
FWI at the start
54.4
Minimum humidity
18 %
Days without rain
6
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Medjez Sfa fire, 21 August 2020
208 ha
1 day
FWI 54.4
Min. humidity 18 %
Sedrata fire, July 2025
276 ha
2 days
FWI 56.1
Min. humidity 18 %
55 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 23 Jul.
Zouabi fire, July 2025
275 ha
1 day
FWI 56.3
Min. humidity 18 %
57 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 23 Jul.
Medjez Sfa fire, July 2017
100 ha
2 days
FWI 50.5
Min. humidity 18 %
6 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 5 Aug.
Ouled Hbaba fire, July 2020
392 ha
1 day
FWI 54.1
Min. humidity 18 %
96 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 3 Aug.
Ouled Hbaba fire, July 2017
219 ha
1 day
FWI 54.3
Min. humidity 20 %
89 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 5 Aug.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 276 ha
- median area
- 18 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 26 of 33 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (208 ha against a median of 276 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 2 days.
In 7 of 33, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
3.4 mmfirst rain
31 Aug10 days after it ended
41km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 21 Aug, and on 31 Aug 3.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 26 of 33, with a median of 1.5 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 14 Aug 2020
After · 28 Aug 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 20 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak29 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1054 µg/m³
WHO 15
19 Aug21 Aug23 Aug
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 · 1Every 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
- 5,857 haBeni Salah BoucheghoufAugust 2021 · 4 days · 9 km away
- 4,488 haBoucheghoufAugust 2017 · 6 days · 9 km away
- 6,254 haZaarouria الزعروريةAugust 2022 · 3 days · 27 km away
- 9,006 haDjebala Khemissi جبالة لخميسيJuly 2026 · 10 days · 33 km away
- 6,376 haEl Tarf الطارف25 August 2026 · 4 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Medjez Sfa fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2020 and 21 August 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 208 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Medjez Sfa (139 ha, 1.0 %); Mechroha (70 ha, 0.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 13.4 km of the centre of Mechroha, 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 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 33. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 276 ha; 18 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 33, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.
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: 14 · 1021 · 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.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- 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-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.