Somiedo fire, January 2019 Somiedo, Teverga
The fire started on 7 January 2019 in Somiedo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 132 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 7 January 2019 at 09:54 and declared extinguished on 7 January 2019.
It is the 144th largest in Asturias since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 77 in Spain in 2019, of 102.
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- Burnt area
- 132ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 7 Jan 2019 – 9 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 20
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 186MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 17 Jan.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
128 ha reached on 7 Jan0.4 %
-
Teverga 1,495 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the centre4 ha reached on 8 Jan0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land71 %
- Broadleaved forest24 %
- Agricultural areas5.9 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Montovo-La Mesa ES1200010
- ZEPA + LIC Somiedo ES0000054
- ZEPA Ubiña-La Mesa ES0000315
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.
Complex of 2 fires according to EGIF (MITECO)
According to EGIF (MITECO), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 115 ha (the satellite measured 132 ha).
EGIF (MITECO) records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Somiedo Las Garbas y Monte Rebollar 7 January 2019 · 09:54 109 ha · extinguished on 7 January 2019 · cause: arson
- 2 Somiedo Saliencia 8 January 2019 · 08:59 6 ha · extinguished on 8 January 2019 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 115 ha, 87 % of the 132 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Jan | 7.5 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 8 Jan | 6.8 °C | 54 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 9 Jan | 4.3 °C | 78 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 10 Jan after | 2.9 °C | 65 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 11 Jan after | 2.4 °C | 66 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 12 Jan after | 3.3 °C | 73 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 13 Jan after | 6.7 °C | 62 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 14 Jan after | 6.6 °C | 62 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 15 Jan after | 8.1 °C | 51 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 16 Jan after | 2.9 °C | 78 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 1 |
| 17 Jan after | 1.9 °C | 70 % | 32 km/h | 2.5 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 8 January 2019 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 · 20Every 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 Somiedo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 January 2019 to 9 January 2019 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 January 2019 to 8 January 2019. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 7 January 2019 at 09:54 and declared extinguished on 7 January 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 132 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Somiedo (128 ha, 0.4 %); Teverga (4 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 4.7 km of the centre of Teverga, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 7.5 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 26 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 January 2019 to 8 January 2019. 20 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 115 official ha against 132 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.