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Arouca fire, August 2016 Covelo de Paivó e Janarde, São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio, Cabreiros e Albergaria da Serra

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2016, 03:02 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2016 in Roge, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 30,331 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 28 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2016 at 14:35 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2016.

The largest in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area
30,331ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
9days
7 Aug 2016 – 15 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
28
freguesias
Started on
7 Aug
2016
Heat detections
2,075
in a single hotspot: 494 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
37.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
64km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 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. Covelo de Paivó e Janarde 171 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    4,359 ha reached on 9 Aug
    98 %
  2. São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio 258 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    3,277 ha reached on 9 Aug
    61 %
  3. Cabreiros e Albergaria da Serra 185 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town
    2,834 ha reached on 7 Aug
    90 %
  4. Manhouce 466 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    2,473 ha reached on 11 Aug
    61 %
  5. Carvalhais e Candal 1,413 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    2,249 ha reached on 11 Aug
    51 %
  6. Moldes 1,126 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    2,132 ha reached on 8 Aug
    76 %
  7. Sul 878 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town
    2,047 ha reached on 13 Aug
    39 %
  8. Canelas e Espiunca 1,065 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,937 ha reached on 10 Aug
    55 %
  9. Santa Eulália 0.6 km from the town where it started
    1,468 ha reached on 7 Aug
    64 %
  10. Real 0.3 km from the town
    1,431 ha reached on 10 Aug
    43 %
  11. Roge 1,540 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town
    1,208 ha reached on 7 Aug
    69 %
  12. Alvarenga 1,057 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    1,011 ha reached on 7 Aug
    26 %
  13. Cepelos 1,158 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town
    902 ha reached on 7 Aug
    48 %
  14. Santa Cruz da Trapa e São Cristóvão de Lafões 1,384 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    565 ha reached on 14 Aug
    20 %
  15. Tropeço 1,086 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    517 ha reached on 11 Aug
    29 %
  16. Urrô 900 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    474 ha reached on 7 Aug
    44 %
  17. União das Freguesias de Arouca e Burgo 5,124 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    473 ha reached on 11 Aug
    31 %
  18. Arões 1,169 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town
    253 ha reached on 7 Aug
    6.3 %
  19. Macieira de Cambra 4,391 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    194 ha reached on 8 Aug
    11 %
  20. União das Freguesias de Reriz e Gafanhão 724 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    178 ha reached on 13 Aug
    7.8 %
  21. Rossas 1,491 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    148 ha reached on 7 Aug
    13 %
  22. Mansores 1,100 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    96 ha reached on 11 Aug
    6.7 %
  23. União das Freguesias de Raiva, Pedorido e Paraíso 2,312 inhabitants · 6.1 km from the town
    53 ha reached on 11 Aug
    1.1 %
  24. Cabril 3.4 km from the town
    45 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.1 %
  25. Chave 1,270 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    17 ha reached on 8 Aug
    1.6 %
  26. Junqueira 834 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town
    11 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.6 %
  27. Escariz
    7 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.4 %
  28. Valadares 660 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town
    1 ha
    0.1 %

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 woodland58 %
  • Other natural land37 %
  • Agricultural areas3.9 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 82 %

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, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 24,486 ha (the satellite measured 30,331 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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Grande incêndio de Arouca 2016 · Incêndio de Arouca · Incêndios de Arouca e S. Pedro do Sul

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)
7 Aug 33.9 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Aug 34.0 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Aug 29.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Aug 28.4 °C 22 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Aug 29.4 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Aug 30.4 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Aug 29.9 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Aug 27.7 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Aug 26.0 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Aug after 23.0 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Aug after 21.7 °C 65 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 15
18 Aug after 24.9 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Aug after 21.4 °C 67 % 36 km/h 1.3 mm Low 9
20 Aug after 22.4 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Aug after 29.7 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Aug after 32.2 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug after 29.8 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug after 28.6 °C 44 % 35 km/h 2.8 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jul 2016
After · 22 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 10 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 250 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 141: 9.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak250 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM10336 µg/m³
5678910111213141516171819202122232425
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 · 2,075Every 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 Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arouca fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 7 August 2016 and 15 August 2016: 9 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2016 at 14:35 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 30,331 hectares (303.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 28 municipalities: Covelo de Paivó e Janarde (4,359 ha, 98 %); São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio (3,277 ha, 61 %); Cabreiros e Albergaria da Serra (2,834 ha, 90 %); Manhouce (2,473 ha, 61 %); Carvalhais e Candal (2,249 ha, 51 %); Moldes (2,132 ha, 76 %); Sul (2,047 ha, 39 %); Canelas e Espiunca (1,937 ha, 55 %); Santa Eulália (1,468 ha, 64 %); Real (1,431 ha, 43 %); Roge (1,208 ha, 69 %); Alvarenga (1,011 ha, 26 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Covelo de Paivó e Janarde. 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 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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

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.