How long did the Arcos de Valdevez fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 August 2016 to 10 August 2016 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 August 2016 to 8 August 2016. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 August 2016 at 01:13 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 157 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Couto (149 ha, 26 %); Gondoriz (4 ha, 0.1 %); Grade e Carralcova (3 ha, 0.2 %); Ázere (1 ha, 0.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Couto and came within 0.8 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 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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.

PT · Portugal · 2016-08-07 → 2016-08-10

Arcos de Valdevez fire, 7 August 2016 Couto, Gondoriz, Grade e Carralcova

Out · last detection 10 Aug 2016, 12:39 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2016 in Couto, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 157 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 August 2016 at 01:13 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2016.

It is the 20th largest in Arcos de Valdevez since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 134 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Arcos de Valdevez · 2016 Ponte da Barca · 2025 Monção · 2017 Entrimo · 2016

Burnt area: 157ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 7 Aug 2016 – 10 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 4; freguesias
Started on: 7 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 5; in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 47MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug10 Aug

Play back 10 Aug 2016

How it evolved, day by day

7 Aug 8 Aug 10 Aug

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

49km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 17 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Couto 646 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre where it started

149 ha reached on 7 Aug

26 %
Gondoriz 3.5 km from the centre

4 ha

0.1 %
Grade e Carralcova 450 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the centre

3 ha

0.2 %
Ázere 207 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre

1 ha

0.2 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland97 %
Agricultural areas2.0 %
Artificial surfaces0.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 8 %

LIC Rio Lima PTCON0020

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 ICNF, this fire started on 7 August 2016 and burned 185 ha (the satellite measured 157 ha).

Arcos de Valdevez Couto 7 August 2016 · 01:13 185 ha · extinguished on 7 August 2016 · cause: arson

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)
7 Aug	37.7 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
8 Aug	36.4 °C	31 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
9 Aug	28.5 °C	45 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
10 Aug	29.6 °C	30 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
11 Aug after	30.9 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
12 Aug after	31.3 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
13 Aug after	28.2 °C	34 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
14 Aug after	27.4 °C	49 %	22 km/h	0.2 mm	High 23
15 Aug after	26.6 °C	56 %	29 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 16
16 Aug after	23.6 °C	53 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
17 Aug after	23.2 °C	69 %	34 km/h	1.4 mm	Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 31 Jul 2016

After · 17 Aug 2016

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 11 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak58 µg/m³

Days over the guideline6 days

PM10114 µg/m³

WHO 15

5678910111213

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 · 5Every 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

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Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arcos de Valdevez fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 August 2016 to 10 August 2016 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 August 2016 to 8 August 2016. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 August 2016 at 01:13 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 157 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Couto (149 ha, 26 %); Gondoriz (4 ha, 0.1 %); Grade e Carralcova (3 ha, 0.2 %); Ázere (1 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Couto and came within 0.8 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 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 August 2016 to 8 August 2016. 5 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 185 official ha against 157 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
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 (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.

Where it burned