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Narón fire, April 2017 Narón, Ferrol

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2017, 13:16 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2017 in Narón, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 279 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in A Coruña since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 77 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

Burnt area
279ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
20 Apr 2017 – 20 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Apr
2017
Heat detections
29
in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr20 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2021

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

The weather it burned in

16°high
83km/h · peak gust
52%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 25 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Narón 39,953 inhabitants · 6.5 km from the town where it started
    186 ha reached on 20 Apr
    2.8 %
  2. Ferrol 64,367 inhabitants · 6.4 km from the town
    93 ha reached on 20 Apr
    1.1 %

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 land84 %
  • Broadleaved forest14 %
  • Agricultural areas2.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 34 %

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 20 April 2017 and burned 438 ha (the satellite measured 279 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.

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)
20 Apr 15.8 °C 52 % 83 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 Apr after 21.5 °C 42 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
22 Apr after 20.8 °C 55 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
23 Apr after 20.4 °C 53 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
24 Apr after 19.0 °C 56 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
25 Apr after 13.3 °C 76 % 48 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Apr 2017
After · 27 Apr 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 24 April 2017 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak29 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1045 µg/m³
1819202122232425262728293012
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 · 29Every 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 Narón fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 20 April 2017 and 20 April 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 279 hectares (2.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Narón (186 ha, 2.8 %); Ferrol (93 ha, 1.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.4 km of Ferrol. 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 15.8 °C, humidity dropped to 52 % and gusts hit 83 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, 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

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.