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San Roque fire, July 2022 San Roque

Out · last measured on 27 Jul 2022

The fire started on 27 July 2022 in San Roque, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 111 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 26 July 2022 at 21:58 and declared extinguished on 30 July 2022.

It is the 16th largest in Cádiz since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 178 in Spain in 2022, of 196.

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
111ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
27 Jul 2022 – 27 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Jul
2022
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Natura 2000
64%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

26°high
40km/h · peak gust
56%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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 · 4.7 km from the town where it started
    111 ha
    0.8 %

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 scrub91 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland8.0 %
  • Agricultural areas0.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 64 %

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 26 July 2022 and burned 95 ha (the satellite measured 111 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)
27 Jul 25.9 °C 56 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Jul after 27.3 °C 58 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 Jul after 29.7 °C 52 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Jul after 26.6 °C 62 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 Jul after 27.1 °C 68 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
1 Aug after 26.9 °C 65 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Aug after 27.0 °C 56 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Aug after 27.7 °C 56 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Aug after 27.9 °C 57 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
5 Aug after 28.1 °C 62 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Aug after 27.9 °C 66 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jul 2022
After · 3 Aug 2022

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 29 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1041 µg/m³
252627282930
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 San Roque fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 27 July 2022 and 27 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 26 July 2022 at 21:58 and declared extinguished on 30 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 111 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Roque (111 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.7 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 25.9 °C, humidity dropped to 56 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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
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.