Skip to content
worldfires
ES · Spain · →

Oímbra fire, 16 July 2022 Oímbra, Monterrei, Cualedro

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2022, 14:07 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2022 in Oímbra, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 897 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 17 July 2022 at 15:53 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2022.

It is the 24th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 46 in Spain in 2022, of 196.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.5 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
897ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
16 Jul 2022 – 19 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
16 Jul
2022
Heat detections
4
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
50MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

16

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
63km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 241 ha in 2016, 92 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Oímbra 1,689 inhabitants · 9.4 km from the town where it started
    782 ha reached on 16 Jul
    11 %
  2. Monterrei 2,403 inhabitants · 13.0 km from the town
    89 ha
    0.7 %
  3. Cualedro 1,538 inhabitants · 9.1 km from the town
    11 ha
    0.1 %

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 land66 %
  • Agricultural areas22 %
  • Broadleaved forest11 %

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 928 ha (the satellite measured 897 ha).

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)
16 Jul 35.9 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
17 Jul 38.1 °C 14 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jul 30.5 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jul 25.4 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Jul after 30.9 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jul after 33.3 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Jul after 28.9 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jul after 32.6 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Jul after 31.7 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jul after 28.4 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Jul after 28.3 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jul after 28.0 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jul after 27.8 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Jul after 28.8 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2022
After · 26 Jul 2022

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 17 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak33 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1052 µg/m³
141516171819202122
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 · 4Every 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 Oímbra fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 16 July 2022 and 19 July 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 17 July 2022 at 15:53 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 897 hectares (9.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Oímbra (782 ha, 11 %); Monterrei (89 ha, 0.7 %); Cualedro (11 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 9.1 km of Cualedro. 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 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
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.