Rubiá fire, August 2021 Rubiá
The fire started on 12 August 2021 in Rubiá, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 193 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 12 August 2021 at 18:06 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2021.
It is the 79th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 67 in Spain in 2021, of 120.
- Burnt area
- 193ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 12 Aug 2021 – 13 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 13
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 490MW
- 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 4 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
-
193 ha reached on 13 Aug1.9 %
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 land73 %
- Broadleaved forest14 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland8.3 %
- Coniferous forest2.6 %
- Agricultural areas1.6 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 12 August 2021 and burned 185 ha (the satellite measured 193 ha).
- Rubiá Val (O) 12 August 2021 · 18:06 185 ha · extinguished on 14 August 2021 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Aug | 28.4 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 13 Aug | 32.3 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 14 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 15 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 Aug after | 24.9 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 19 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 40 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Aug after | 25.1 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
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 13 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 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 · 13Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,735 haCarballeda de ValdeorrasJuly 2022 · 8 days · 8 km away
- 37,831 haLarouco Vilamartín de ValdeorrasAugust 2025 · 15 days · 11 km away
- 13,989 haFolgoso do CourelJuly 2022 · 10 days · 28 km away
- 25,953 haPorto de Sanabria PortoAugust 2025 · 17 days · 30 km away
- 26,241 haLlamas de Cabrera PonferradaAugust 2025 · 13 days · 37 km away
- 10,927 haEncinedoAugust 2017 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rubiá fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2021 and 13 August 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 12 August 2021 at 18:06 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 193 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rubiá (193 ha, 1.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.5 km of Rubiá. 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 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, 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
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.