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Arbo fire, 10 August 2016 Arbo, As Neves

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2016, 13:42 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2016 in Arbo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,146 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 August 2016 at 20:23 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2016.

It is the 3th largest in Pontevedra since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 6 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

Burnt area
2,146ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
10 Aug 2016 – 11 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Aug
2016
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 154 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug11 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1112

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
50km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 15 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. Arbo 2,603 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town where it started
    1,350 ha reached on 11 Aug
    32 %
  2. As Neves 3,657 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town
    797 ha reached on 11 Aug
    12 %

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

  • Other natural land47 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland18 %
  • Broadleaved forest16 %
  • Coniferous forest13 %
  • Mixed forest3.2 %
  • Agricultural areas2.3 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

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 10 August 2016 and burned 1,992 ha (the satellite measured 2,146 ha).

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendio de Arbo · incendio de Mourentán · incendio de As Neves y Arbo

Sources

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)
10 Aug 27.0 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Aug 29.2 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug after 30.0 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Aug after 28.6 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Aug after 29.1 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
15 Aug after 27.8 °C 46 % 30 km/h 1.6 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2016
After · 18 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 11 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 93 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak93 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10143 µg/m³
89101112131415
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 · 164Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arbo fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2016 and 11 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 August 2016 at 20:23 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,146 hectares (21.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arbo (1,350 ha, 32 %); As Neves (797 ha, 12 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.0 km of Arbo. 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 29.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

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
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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 (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.