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Soba fire, 18 February 2019 Soba, Karrantza Harana/Valle de Carranza

Out · last detection 18 Feb 2019, 03:07 UTC

The fire started on 18 February 2019 in Soba, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 125 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 February 2019 at 12:00 and declared extinguished on 18 February 2019.

It is the 140th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 81 in Spain in 2019, of 102.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
125ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
18 Feb 2019 – 18 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Feb
2019
Heat detections
4
in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
11MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Feb18 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

18

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

The weather it burned in

11°high
28km/h · peak gust
62%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.3 mm on 19 Feb.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Soba 1,057 inhabitants · 8.6 km from the town where it started
    117 ha reached on 18 Feb
    0.5 %
  2. Karrantza Harana/Valle de Carranza 2,715 inhabitants · 7.6 km from the town
    8 ha
    0.1 %

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 land87 %
  • Broadleaved forest13 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 7 %

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 18 February 2019 and burned 125 ha (the satellite measured 125 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)
18 Feb 11.4 °C 62 % 28 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 0
19 Feb after 7.7 °C 81 % 20 km/h 7.3 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Feb 2019
After · 25 Feb 2019

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 21 February 2019 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1037 µg/m³
161718192021
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 · 4Every 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 Soba fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 18 February 2019 and 18 February 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 February 2019 at 12:00 and declared extinguished on 18 February 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 125 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Soba (117 ha, 0.5 %); Karrantza Harana/Valle de Carranza (8 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.6 km of Karrantza Harana/Valle de Carranza. 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 11.4 °C, humidity dropped to 62 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very 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
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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.