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Nerva fire, August 2018 Nerva, Campofrío, El Campillo

Out · last detection 3 Aug 2018, 02:00 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2018 in Nerva, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,744 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Huelva since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 2 in Spain in 2018, of 23.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,744ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
2 Aug 2018 – 4 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
5
municipalities
Started on
2 Aug
2018
Heat detections
33
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
63
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
191MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug4 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

3

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
58km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 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. Nerva 5,087 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town where it started
    1,210 ha reached on 3 Aug
    22 %
  2. Campofrío 728 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town
    265 ha reached on 3 Aug
    5.7 %
  3. El Campillo
    243 ha reached on 3 Aug
    2.7 %
  4. Minas de Riotinto 3,698 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town
    19 ha reached on 3 Aug
    0.8 %
  5. La Granada de Río-Tinto 235 inhabitants · 4.5 km from the town
    9 ha reached on 3 Aug
    0.2 %

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

  • Coniferous forest36 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub32 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland9.0 %
  • Agricultural areas8.6 %
  • Broadleaved forest7.7 %
  • Artificial surfaces2.6 %
  • Mixed forest2.3 %
  • Other natural land1.3 %

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 2 August 2018 and burned 1,327 ha (the satellite measured 1,744 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 2 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendio de Nerva · incendio de la Sierra de San Cristóbal
Official area reported: 1,747 ha (the satellite measured 1,744 ha)
Declared extinguished: 11 August 2018

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)
2 Aug 39.3 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
3 Aug 40.7 °C 12 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
4 Aug 41.9 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
5 Aug after 41.5 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
6 Aug after 39.1 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
7 Aug after 36.6 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Aug after 32.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Aug after 29.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Aug after 33.0 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Aug after 34.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Aug after 33.5 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Aug after 32.5 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug after 31.8 °C 20 % 32 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 · 26 Jul 2018
After · 11 Aug 2018

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 5 August 2018 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak33 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1075 µg/m³
311234567
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 · 33Every 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 Nerva fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2018 and 4 August 2018: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,744 hectares (17.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Nerva (1,210 ha, 22 %); Campofrío (265 ha, 5.7 %); El Campillo (243 ha, 2.7 %); Minas de Riotinto (19 ha, 0.8 %); La Granada de Río-Tinto (9 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 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 41.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, class Very 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.