Soba fire, March 2023 Soba, San Roque de Riomiera
The fire started on 29 March 2023 in Soba, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 519 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 6 recorded fires was detected on 29 March 2023 at 17:43 and declared extinguished on 31 March 2023.
It is the 15th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 21 in Spain in 2023, of 124.
The power measured by the satellite is low (1.4 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
- 519ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 29 Mar 2023 – 30 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 12
- in a single hotspot: 1 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10MW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 31 Mar.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 77 ha in 2018, 228 ha in 2019, 50 ha in 2020, 131 ha in 2021, 327 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 438 ha that had burned before.
- 168 ha Soba fire, January 2019 222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 158 ha Soba fire, January 2022 652 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 157 ha Soba fire, January 2022 260 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 91 ha Soba fire, March 2021 158 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 77 ha Soba fire, April 2018 102 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 36 ha Soba fire, February 2019 320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 24 ha Soba fire, February 2019 245 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Soba fire, February 2021 132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
518 ha reached on 29 Mar2.4 %
-
San Roque de Riomiera 333 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town1 ha0.0 %
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 land99 %
- Broadleaved forest1.0 %
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.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), 6 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 459 ha (the satellite measured 519 ha).
- Soba Valdicio -Las Pizarras 29 March 2023 · 17:43 221 ha · extinguished on 31 March 2023 · cause: arson
- Soba Valdicio- Somo el Tujo 29 March 2023 · 17:45 82 ha · extinguished on 30 March 2023 · cause: arson
- Soba valdicio 30 March 2023 · 09:30 54 ha · extinguished on 31 March 2023 · cause: arson
- San Roque de Riomiera El Ahorcao 30 March 2023 · 10:35 43 ha · extinguished on 31 March 2023 · cause: arson
- San Roque de Riomiera Lunada/la Concha 29 March 2023 · 08:50 40 ha · extinguished on 30 March 2023 · cause: arson
- Soba Valdició 25 March 2023 19 ha · extinguished on 25 March 2023 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Mar | 19.5 °C | 28 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 30 Mar | 15.2 °C | 42 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 31 Mar after | 12.0 °C | 50 % | 49 km/h | 2.6 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 31 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 12Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Soba fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 29 March 2023 and 30 March 2023: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 6 recorded fires was detected on 29 March 2023 at 17:43 and declared extinguished on 31 March 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 519 hectares (5.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Soba (518 ha, 2.4 %); San Roque de Riomiera (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.1 km of San Roque de Riomiera. 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 19.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class 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
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.