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San Roque fire, July 2016 San Roque, La Línea de la Concepción

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2016, 01:42 UTC

The fire started on 12 July 2016 in San Roque, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 446 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 12 July 2016 at 12:53 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2016.

It is the 3th largest in Cádiz since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 28 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

Burnt area
446ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
12 Jul 2016 – 13 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Jul
2016
Heat detections
19
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jul13 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1213

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
39km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 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. San Roque 34,310 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town where it started
    297 ha reached on 12 Jul
    2.0 %
  2. La Línea de la Concepción 64,499 inhabitants · 5.0 km from the town
    150 ha reached on 12 Jul
    7.8 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub90 %
  • Artificial surfaces4.3 %
  • Agricultural areas3.4 %
  • Other natural land2.5 %

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 July 2016 and burned 435 ha (the satellite measured 446 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)
12 Jul 31.6 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jul 31.2 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Jul after 25.8 °C 64 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Jul after 26.1 °C 54 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Jul after 25.2 °C 55 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Jul after 25.0 °C 60 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Jul after 25.0 °C 61 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul after 26.1 °C 59 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jul after 28.5 °C 53 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Jul after 32.1 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Jul after 28.2 °C 46 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jul after 26.6 °C 67 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jul 2016
After · 20 Jul 2016

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 10 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1073 µg/m³
10111213141516
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 · 19Every 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 San Roque fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 July 2016 and 13 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 12 July 2016 at 12:53 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 446 hectares (4.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Roque (297 ha, 2.0 %); La Línea de la Concepción (150 ha, 7.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.4 km of San Roque. 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 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class 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
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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.