How long did the Nerva fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2016 and 8 August 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 8 August 2016 at 13:52 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 119 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Nerva (119 ha, 2.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.6 km of Nerva. 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 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 38 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.

ES · Spain · 2016-08-08 → 2016-08-08

Nerva fire, August 2016 Nerva

Out · last detection 8 Aug 2016, 13:15 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2016 in Nerva, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 119 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 8 August 2016 at 13:52 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2016.

It is the 33th largest in Huelva since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 63 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

Burnt area: 119ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 8 Aug 2016 – 8 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 8 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 7; in a single hotspot: 355 MW
Danger at start: 54; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 639MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug8 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

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

38km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 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

Nerva 5,087 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town where it started

119 ha reached on 8 Aug

2.2 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland51 %
Coniferous forest25 %
Agricultural areas12 %
Sclerophyllous scrub10 %
Broadleaved forest1.7 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 8 August 2016 and burned 126 ha (the satellite measured 119 ha).

Nerva Cerro del Águila 8 August 2016 · 13:52 126 ha · extinguished on 9 August 2016 · cause: arson

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	Danger (FWI)
8 Aug	38.3 °C	14 %	38 km/h	Extreme 54
9 Aug after	37.5 °C	19 %	32 km/h	Extreme 51
10 Aug after	33.6 °C	25 %	37 km/h	Very high 46
11 Aug after	34.9 °C	23 %	38 km/h	Very high 48
12 Aug after	35.4 °C	21 %	37 km/h	Very high 47
13 Aug after	36.4 °C	19 %	31 km/h	Very high 47
14 Aug after	35.7 °C	25 %	31 km/h	Very high 48
15 Aug after	33.2 °C	30 %	39 km/h	Very high 46
16 Aug after	34.1 °C	24 %	37 km/h	Very high 44
17 Aug after	33.5 °C	27 %	40 km/h	Very high 45
18 Aug after	35.4 °C	19 %	30 km/h	Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 1 Aug 2016

After · 15 Aug 2016

Before After

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 10 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1046 µg/m³

WHO 15

67891011

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 · 7Every 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

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Nerva fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2016 and 8 August 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 8 August 2016 at 13:52 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 119 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Nerva (119 ha, 2.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.6 km of Nerva. 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 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 38 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

MITECO · Incendios forestales ↗
Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned