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Pantón fire, August 2017 Pantón, Monforte de Lemos

Out · last measured on 5 Aug 2017

The fire started on 5 August 2017 in Pantón, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 335 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Lugo since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 71 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
335ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
5 Aug 2017 – 5 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
5 Aug
2017
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Natura 2000
0%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

24°high
49km/h · peak gust
60%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 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. Pantón 2,350 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town where it started
    277 ha
    1.9 %
  2. Monforte de Lemos 18,933 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town
    58 ha
    0.3 %

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 woodland46 %
  • Other natural land32 %
  • Agricultural areas17 %
  • Broadleaved forest5.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

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 4 August 2017 and burned 249 ha (the satellite measured 335 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)
5 Aug 24.1 °C 60 % 49 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 21
6 Aug after 28.8 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Aug after 23.6 °C 60 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
8 Aug after 22.2 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
9 Aug after 20.7 °C 40 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Aug after 24.2 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Aug after 27.7 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Aug after 29.8 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Aug after 31.5 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Aug after 29.6 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Aug after 26.0 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jul 2017
After · 12 Aug 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 7 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 8 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak8 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1016 µg/m³
345678
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pantón fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 5 August 2017 and 5 August 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 335 hectares (3.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pantón (277 ha, 1.9 %); Monforte de Lemos (58 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.8 km of Pantón. 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 24.1 °C, humidity dropped to 60 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.