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Meghraoua fire, July 2020 مغراوة · Meghraoua, Mihoub, Zbarbar

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2020, 01:22 UTC

The fire started on 19 July 2020 in Meghraoua, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 303 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 20th largest in Médéa since 2016 (of 55 with a page). Number 99 in Algeria in 2020, of 236.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.2 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…

Suggestions: Zbarbar · 2023Maala · 2023Kadiria · 2026Deux Bassins · 2021

Burnt area
303ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
7days
19 Jul 2020 – 25 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
19 Jul
2020
Heat detections
12
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Average daily power
12MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jul25 Jul
25 Jul 2020

How it evolved, day by day

19 Jul 2020 · 1 MW · 1 20 Jul 2020 · 5 MW · 1 21 Jul 2020 · 28 MW · 4 22 Jul 2020 · 2 MW · 1 24 Jul 2020 · 35 MW · 4 25 Jul 2020 · 1 MW · 1
19 Jul 20 Jul 21 Jul 22 Jul 24 Jul 25 Jul

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
43km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Meghraoua مغراوة 5,647 inhabitants · 7.1 km from the centre where it started
    264 ha reached on 19 Jul
    3.8 %
  2. Mihoub ميهوب 12,191 inhabitants · 8.4 km from the centre
    40 ha reached on 24 Jul
    0.4 %
  3. Zbarbar معالة 5,296 inhabitants · 7.0 km from the centre
    1 ha
    0.0 %

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 land24 %
  • Broadleaved forest6.5 %

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
19 Jul 30.9 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Jul 34.5 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jul 36.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
22 Jul 38.0 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Jul 31.9 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jul 30.2 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Jul 36.9 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Jul after 38.7 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jul after 38.4 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Jul after 39.8 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Jul after 38.0 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 50
30 Jul after 38.8 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Jul after 38.0 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Aug after 36.1 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jul 2020
After · 1 Aug 2020

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 21 July 2020 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1042 µg/m³
171819202122232425262728
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 · 12Every 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 Algeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Meghraoua fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 July 2020 to 25 July 2020 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 July 2020 to 22 July 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 303 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Meghraoua (264 ha, 3.8 %); Mihoub (40 ha, 0.4 %); Zbarbar (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 7.0 km of the centre of Zbarbar, 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 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.

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

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 14 · 1021.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 July 2020 to 22 July 2020. 12 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.