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Moguer fire, June 2017 Moguer, Almonte, Lucena del Puerto

Out · last detection 26 Jun 2017, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 25 June 2017 in Moguer, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 10,375 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Huelva since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 2 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

Burnt area
10,375ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
8days
25 Jun 2017 – 2 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
25 Jun
2017
Heat detections
52
in a single hotspot: 300 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jun2 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2526

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 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. Moguer 12,938 inhabitants · 7.1 km from the town where it started
    5,966 ha reached on 25 Jun
    29 %
  2. Almonte 24,864 inhabitants · 21.2 km from the town
    3,356 ha reached on 26 Jun
    3.9 %
  3. Lucena del Puerto
    1,069 ha reached on 26 Jun
    15 %

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 land68 %
  • Coniferous forest22 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland7.5 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub1.3 %
  • Agricultural areas0.6 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 89 %

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 24 June 2017 and burned 8,072 ha (the satellite measured 10,375 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 30 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 Doñana 2017 · Incendio de Moguer · Incendio de Las Peñuelas
Official area reported: 8,468 ha (the satellite measured 10,375 ha)
Declared extinguished: 4 July 2017

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)
25 Jun 33.0 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 48
26 Jun 29.6 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Jun 30.0 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Jun 27.7 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jun 27.2 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jun 28.4 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Jul 31.5 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Jul 35.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Jul after 34.7 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Jul after 30.7 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Jul after 24.8 °C 64 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Jul after 27.1 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Jul after 29.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Jul after 28.5 °C 48 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jul after 30.6 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Jul after 32.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jul after 36.1 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Jul after 39.4 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jun 2017
After · 9 Jul 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 52Every 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 Moguer fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 25 June 2017 and 2 July 2017: 8 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 10,375 hectares (103.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Moguer (5,966 ha, 29 %); Almonte (3,356 ha, 3.9 %); Lucena del Puerto (1,069 ha, 15 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.1 km of Moguer. 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 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 49 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 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.