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Braga fire, July 2016 Sequeira, Ferreiros e Gondizalves, União das freguesias de Real, Dume e Semelhe

Out · last measured on 26 Jul 2016

The fire started on 26 July 2016 in Sequeira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 145 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 146 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
145ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
26 Jul 2016 – 26 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
26 Jul
2016
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

31°high
29km/h · peak gust
44%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Sequeira 1,741 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    103 ha
    24 %
  2. Ferreiros e Gondizalves 9,978 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    35 ha
    8.2 %
  3. União das freguesias de Real, Dume e Semelhe
    7 ha
    0.8 %

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 woodland59 %
  • Artificial surfaces34 %
  • Agricultural areas6.9 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 25 July 2016 and burned 98 ha (the satellite measured 145 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
26 Jul 31.0 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Jul after 32.1 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jul after 32.6 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Jul after 31.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Jul after 23.3 °C 67 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
31 Jul after 25.8 °C 48 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
1 Aug after 27.5 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Aug after 30.7 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Aug after 26.6 °C 48 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Aug after 22.2 °C 72 % 38 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 12
5 Aug after 28.6 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jul 2016
After · 2 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 29 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak29 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1034 µg/m³
242526272829
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Braga fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2016 and 26 July 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 145 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sequeira (103 ha, 24 %); Ferreiros e Gondizalves (35 ha, 8.2 %); União das freguesias de Real, Dume e Semelhe (7 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Sequeira. 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 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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

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.