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Almeida fire, August 2016 São Pedro de Rio Seco, Vilar Formoso

Out · last measured on 19 Aug 2016

The fire started on 19 August 2016 in São Pedro de Rio Seco, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 345 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 19 August 2016 at 14:42 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2016.

Number 79 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
345ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
19 Aug 2016 – 19 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
19 Aug
2016
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

26°high
35km/h · peak gust
51%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. São Pedro de Rio Seco 154 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town where it started
    286 ha
    13 %
  2. Vilar Formoso 1,791 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    58 ha
    3.8 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland70 %
  • Agricultural areas28 %
  • Other natural land1.8 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 19 August 2016 and burned 317 ha (the satellite measured 345 ha).

ICNF (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas). This is the agency’s operational record: its figures may be revised when the year’s statistics are closed.

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)
19 Aug 25.8 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Aug after 25.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug after 29.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug after 33.9 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Aug after 34.7 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Aug after 33.3 °C 31 % 34 km/h 3.3 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2016
After · 26 Aug 2016

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 17 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1030 µg/m³
171819202122
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Almeida fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 19 August 2016 and 19 August 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 19 August 2016 at 14:42 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 345 hectares (3.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: São Pedro de Rio Seco (286 ha, 13 %); Vilar Formoso (58 ha, 3.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.0 km of São Pedro de Rio Seco. 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 25.8 °C, humidity dropped to 51 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (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
What do you think is wrong?

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 112.

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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.