How long did the Boticas fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 20 August 2016 and 23 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 August 2016 at 21:40 and declared extinguished on 21 August 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 246 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Alturas do Barroso e Cerdedo (246 ha, 4.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.2 km of Alturas do Barroso e Cerdedo. 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 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2016-08-20 → 2016-08-23

Boticas fire, August 2016 Alturas do Barroso e Cerdedo

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2016, 02:12 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2016 in Alturas do Barroso e Cerdedo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 246 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 August 2016 at 21:40 and declared extinguished on 21 August 2016.

Number 96 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.3 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: 246ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 20 Aug 2016 – 23 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; freguesias
Started on: 20 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 34; in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 252MW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Aug 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

212223

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

39km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 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

Alturas do Barroso e Cerdedo 389 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town where it started

246 ha reached on 21 Aug

4.3 %

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 land98 %
Agricultural areas1.6 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 20 August 2016 and burned 248 ha (the satellite measured 246 ha).

Boticas Cerdedo 20 August 2016 · 21:40 248 ha · extinguished on 21 August 2016 · cause: negligence

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)
20 Aug	19.5 °C	41 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
21 Aug	24.8 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
22 Aug	28.5 °C	22 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
23 Aug	29.3 °C	30 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
24 Aug after	24.9 °C	45 %	35 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Aug 2016

After · 30 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 25 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1049 µg/m³

WHO 15

181920212223242526

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 · 34Every 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

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Boticas fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 20 August 2016 and 23 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 August 2016 at 21:40 and declared extinguished on 21 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 246 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Alturas do Barroso e Cerdedo (246 ha, 4.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.2 km of Alturas do Barroso e Cerdedo. 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 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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 (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