Valtierra fire, July 2021 Valtierra, Bardenas Reales
The fire started on 21 July 2021 in Valtierra, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 429 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 July 2021 at 20:17 and declared extinguished on 22 July 2021.
It is the 7th largest in Navarre since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 30 in Spain in 2021, of 124.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 429ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 21 Jul 2021 – 22 Jul 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 45
- in a single hotspot: 160 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 410MW
- 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 14 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
-
399 ha reached on 21 Jul8.0 %
-
Bardenas Reales 5.9 km from the centre30 ha0.1 %
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
- Coniferous forest49 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland20 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub17 %
- Agricultural areas14 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Bardenas Reales ES2200037
- ZEPA El Plano-Blanca alta ES0000171
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 20 July 2021 and burned 378 ha (the satellite measured 429 ha).
- Valtierra Vedado de Eguaras 20 July 2021 · 20:17 378 ha · extinguished on 22 July 2021 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jul | 38.2 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Jul | 40.3 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Jul after | 39.2 °C | 10 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 24 Jul after | 30.3 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 25 Jul after | 28.7 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jul after | 28.9 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Jul after | 33.4 °C | 24 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 28 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 32 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Jul after | 34.2 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Jul after | 29.4 °C | 40 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Jul after | 22.2 °C | 48 % | 61 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
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 21 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 16 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 · 45Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,995 haArguedasJune 2022 · 2 days · 8 km away
- 365 haCarcastilloJuly 2022 · 2 days · 14 km away
- 7,144 haSan Martín de UnxJune 2022 · 3 days · 31 km away
- 347 haTafallaJune 2022 · 1 day · 33 km away
- 388 haEjea de los CaballerosJuly 2024 · 1 day · 35 km away
- 15,045 haOrés BiotaJuly 2026 · 4 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Valtierra fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 21 July 2021 and 22 July 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 July 2021 at 20:17 and declared extinguished on 22 July 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 429 hectares (4.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Valtierra (399 ha, 8.0 %); Bardenas Reales (30 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 5.9 km of the centre of Bardenas Reales, 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 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
- 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 45 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 378 official ha against 429 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.