How long did the Soumaa fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2021 and 12 August 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 189 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guerrouaou (111 ha, 6.3 %); Soumaa (78 ha, 2.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.0 km of Soumaa. 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 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

DZ · Algeria · 2021-08-12 → 2021-08-12

Soumaa fire, August 2021 الصومعة · Guerrouaou, Soumaa

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2021, 01:42 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2021 in Soumaa, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 189 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in Blida since 2016 (of 38 with a page). Number 56 in Algeria in 2021, of 92.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bouinan · 2026 Bougara · 2021 Baata · 2017 Souhane · 2023

Burnt area: 189ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 12 Aug 2021 – 12 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit: 2; communes
Started on: 12 Aug; 2021
Heat detections: 3; in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start: 49; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 15MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

12 Aug 2021 · 15 MW · 3

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

41km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days 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

Guerrouaou

111 ha reached on 12 Aug

6.3 %
Soumaa الصومعة 37,461 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town where it started

78 ha reached on 12 Aug

2.8 %

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

Mixed forest91 %
Broadleaved forest5.8 %
Other natural land2.6 %
Coniferous forest0.5 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
12 Aug	38.5 °C	21 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
13 Aug after	37.7 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
14 Aug after	38.7 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
15 Aug after	38.7 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 51
16 Aug after	37.2 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
17 Aug after	32.5 °C	45 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Aug after	31.1 °C	45 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
19 Aug after	32.2 °C	36 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
20 Aug after	32.9 °C	42 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
21 Aug after	36.5 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
22 Aug after	36.5 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Aug 2021

After · 19 Aug 2021

Before After

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 12 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak40 µg/m³

Days over the guideline6 days

PM1077 µg/m³

WHO 15

101112131415

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 · 3Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Algeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Soumaa fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2021 and 12 August 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 189 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guerrouaou (111 ha, 6.3 %); Soumaa (78 ha, 2.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.0 km of Soumaa. 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 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (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: 14 · 1021

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 14 · 1021.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.

Where it burned