Páramo del Sil fire, May 2017 Páramo del Sil
The fire started on 24 May 2017 in Páramo del Sil, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 153 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 57th largest in León since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 110 in Spain in 2017, of 144.
- Burnt area
- 153ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 24 May 2017 – 25 May 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 May
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 12
- in a single hotspot: 109 MW
- Danger at start
- 10
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 468MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 26 May.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Páramo del Sil where it started153 ha reached on 25 May0.8 %
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 land88 %
- Broadleaved forest12 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 25 May 2017 and burned 68 ha (the satellite measured 153 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Páramo del Sil 25 May 2017 · 08:02 68 ha · extinguished on 26 May 2017 · cause: natural (lightning)
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 May | 24.7 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 10 |
| 25 May | 22.5 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 2.6 mm | Very low 2 |
| 26 May after | 17.1 °C | 53 % | 53 km/h | 3.3 mm | Very low 0 |
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 28 May 2017 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 12Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,434 haPeranzanesSeptember 2016 · 1 day · 12 km away
- 8,001 haAnllares del Sil Páramo del SilAugust 2025 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 7,070 haFasgar Murias de ParedesAugust 2025 · 8 days · 20 km away
- 4,285 haVillablinoAugust 2025 · 4 days · 30 km away
- 1,627 haCervantes13 October 2017 · 5 days · 37 km away
- 1,966 haValdesamario22 July 2026 · 1 day · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Páramo del Sil fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 May 2017 and 25 May 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 153 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Páramo del Sil (153 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, class Low.
- 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
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.