How long did the Bouçoães fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 9 September 2016 and 9 September 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 267 hectares (2.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bouçoães (234 ha, 8.9 %); Vilar de Lomba e São Jomil (29 ha, 1.0 %); Rebordelo (4 ha, 0.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.4 km of Rebordelo. 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 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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 · 2016-09-09 → 2016-09-09

Bouçoães fire, September 2016 Bouçoães, Vilar de Lomba e São Jomil, Rebordelo

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2016, 12:57 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2016 in Bouçoães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 267 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 89 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.8 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: 267ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 9 Sept 2016 – 9 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 9 Sept; 2016
Heat detections: 9; in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start: 33; High · FWI index
Energy released: 26MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

26°high

34km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 23.8 mm on 13 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Bouçoães 303 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town where it started

234 ha reached on 10 Sept

8.9 %
Vilar de Lomba e São Jomil 207 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the town

29 ha

1.0 %
Rebordelo 2.4 km from the town

4 ha

0.2 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland75 %
Other natural land25 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 14 %

ZEPA + LIC Montesinho / Nogueira PTCON0002 · PTZPE0003

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.

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)
9 Sept	26.1 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
10 Sept after	26.8 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
11 Sept after	28.3 °C	41 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
12 Sept after	29.9 °C	31 %	45 km/h	0.9 mm	High 29
13 Sept after	19.4 °C	44 %	49 km/h	23.8 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Sept 2016

After · 16 Sept 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 7 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 101 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak101 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM10117 µg/m³

WHO 15

78910111213

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 · 9Every 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 Bouçoães fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 9 September 2016 and 9 September 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 267 hectares (2.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bouçoães (234 ha, 8.9 %); Vilar de Lomba e São Jomil (29 ha, 1.0 %); Rebordelo (4 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.4 km of Rebordelo. 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 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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