Oímbra fire, 18 July 2022 Oímbra
The fire started on 18 July 2022 in Oímbra, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 393 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 17 July 2022 at 18:46 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2022.
It is the 51th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 73 in Spain in 2022, of 192.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 393ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 18 Jul 2022 – 19 Jul 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 10
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 123MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
19 Jul 2022 · 123 MW · 10
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 12 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
-
394 ha reached on 19 Jul5.5 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land47 %
- Broadleaved forest28 %
- Agricultural areas25 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 17 July 2022 and burned 370 ha (the satellite measured 393 ha).
- Oímbra San Cibrao 17 July 2022 · 18:46 370 ha · extinguished on 24 July 2022 · 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 | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 19 Jul | 27.0 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 20 Jul after | 33.2 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Jul after | 34.3 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Jul after | 32.3 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Jul after | 34.3 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Jul after | 30.3 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Jul after | 30.3 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Jul after | 31.3 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jul after | 29.3 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Jul after | 31.2 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 16 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 10Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,493 haVilarelho Da RaiaAugust 2025 · 2 days · 6 km away
- 24,471 haMonterreiAugust 2025 · 8 days · 12 km away
- 3,634 haLazaAugust 2022 · 7 days · 30 km away
- 13,065 haValpaços ErvõesJuly 2026 · 6 days · 32 km away
- 7,090 haVilariño de ConsoJuly 2022 · 10 days · 36 km away
- 3,405 haVinhais Vale das Fontes28 August 2025 · 3 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Oímbra fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 18 July 2022 and 19 July 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 17 July 2022 at 18:46 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 393 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Oímbra (394 ha, 5.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Oímbra and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 10 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 370 official ha against 393 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.