Soba fire, February 2023 Soba
The fire started on 15 February 2023 in Soba, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 153 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 113th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 81 in Spain in 2023, of 124.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Soba · 2019Soba · 2022Soba · 2021Soba · 2021
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
- 153ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 15 Feb 2023 – 15 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Feb
- 2023
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 100%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 21 Feb.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 142 ha in 2019, 45 ha in 2020, 76 ha in 2021, 126 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 153 ha that had burned before.
- 142 ha Soba fire, February 2019 320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 126 ha Soba fire, January 2022 652 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 63 ha Soba fire, February 2021 132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14 ha Soba fire, March 2021 158 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
153 ha0.7 %
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 land100 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Montaña oriental ES1300002
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Feb | 11.7 °C | 45 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 16 Feb after | 11.7 °C | 49 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 17 Feb after | 12.5 °C | 49 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 18 Feb after | 13.3 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 19 Feb after | 11.2 °C | 59 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 20 Feb after | 15.1 °C | 46 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 Feb after | 11.8 °C | 56 % | 25 km/h | 2.8 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 18 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 23 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Soba fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 February 2023 and 15 February 2023: 1 day 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 Soba (153 ha, 0.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 14.0 km of Soba. 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 11.7 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.