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Avión fire, August 2016 Avión, Covelo

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2016, 14:01 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2016 in Avión, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 410 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 30 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
410ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
10 Aug 2016 – 12 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Aug
2016
Heat detections
22
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
244MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

11

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
52km/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: 1.2 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

  1. Avión 1,719 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town where it started
    249 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.0 %
  2. Covelo 2,472 inhabitants · 10.7 km from the town
    162 ha reached on 11 Aug
    1.2 %

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 land88 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland6.1 %
  • Agricultural areas5.9 %

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 609 ha (the satellite measured 410 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
10 Aug 23.9 °C 32 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Aug 26.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug 27.3 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Aug after 24.9 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Aug after 25.3 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Aug after 24.5 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 20
16 Aug after 20.3 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Aug after 19.5 °C 67 % 30 km/h 1.2 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2016
After · 19 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 13 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak51 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1060 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 · 22Every 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 Avión fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2016 and 12 August 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 410 hectares (4.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Avión (249 ha, 2.0 %); Covelo (162 ha, 1.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.4 km of Avión. 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 27.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 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.