Viana do Bolo fire, August 2020 Viana do Bolo
The fire started on 1 August 2020 in Viana do Bolo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 208 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 3 August 2020 at 10:28 and declared extinguished on 8 August 2020.
It is the 75th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 48 in Spain in 2020, of 89.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 208ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 1 Aug 2020 – 6 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 26MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 7 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
208 ha reached on 1 Aug0.8 %
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 land64 %
- Broadleaved forest36 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Pena Trevinca ES0000437 · ES1130007
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 211 ha (the satellite measured 208 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 Viana do Bolo Pradorramisquedo 1 August 2020 · 15:28 13 ha · extinguished on 1 August 2020 · cause: arson
- 2 Viana do Bolo Pradorramisquedo 3 August 2020 · 10:28 198 ha · extinguished on 8 August 2020 · cause: rekindling
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 211 ha, 102 % of the 208 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Aug | 23.2 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Aug | 21.7 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Aug | 21.3 °C | 44 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Aug | 25.1 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Aug | 27.8 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Aug | 30.5 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 42 % | 39 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
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 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 13 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 · 15Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,026 haA MezquitaAugust 2025 · 9 days · 12 km away
- 25,953 haPorto de Sanabria PortoAugust 2025 · 17 days · 21 km away
- 7,090 haVilariño de ConsoJuly 2022 · 10 days · 28 km away
- 30,754 haChandrexa de QueixaAugust 2025 · 20 days · 29 km away
- 12,735 haCarballeda de ValdeorrasJuly 2022 · 8 days · 30 km away
- 37,831 haLarouco Vilamartín de ValdeorrasAugust 2025 · 15 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Viana do Bolo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 August 2020 to 6 August 2020 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 August 2020 to 4 August 2020. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 3 August 2020 at 10:28 and declared extinguished on 8 August 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 208 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Viana do Bolo (208 ha, 0.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Viana do Bolo and came within 12.7 km of its centre. 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 25.1 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
- 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 1 August 2020 to 4 August 2020. 15 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 211 official ha against 208 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.