How long did the Canhas fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2016 and 11 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,264 hectares (32.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 7 municipalities: Canhas (691 ha, 41 %); Ponta do Sol (690 ha, 25 %); Arco da Calheta (578 ha, 39 %); Prazeres (460 ha, 46 %); Calheta (444 ha, 19 %); Estreito da Calheta (331 ha, 23 %); Fajã da Ovelha (80 ha, 3.6 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Prazeres. 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 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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 · 2016-08-08 → 2016-08-11

Canhas fire, August 2016 Canhas, Ponta do Sol, Arco da Calheta

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2016, 04:01 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2016 in Canhas, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,264 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 7 municipalities.

Number 8 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area: 3,264ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 8 Aug 2016 – 11 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 7; freguesias
Started on: 8 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 208; in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start: 21; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 3.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 12 Aug 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug11 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

89101112

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

The weather it burned in

24°high

67km/h · peak gust

36%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 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

Canhas where it started

691 ha reached on 8 Aug

41 %
Ponta do Sol 3,597 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town

690 ha reached on 9 Aug

25 %
Arco da Calheta 3,188 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town

578 ha reached on 9 Aug

39 %
Prazeres 685 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town

460 ha reached on 10 Aug

46 %
Calheta

444 ha reached on 10 Aug

19 %
Estreito da Calheta 1,578 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town

331 ha reached on 10 Aug

23 %
Fajã da Ovelha 812 inhabitants · 3.7 km from the town

80 ha reached on 12 Aug

3.6 %

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 land47 %
Scrub and transitional woodland30 %
Coniferous forest11 %
Mixed forest11 %
Artificial surfaces0.7 %
Agricultural areas0.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 1 %

ZEPA + LIC Laurissilva da Madeira PTMAD0001
LIC Maciço Montanhoso Central da Ilha da Madeira PTMAD0002

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	Danger (FWI)
8 Aug	23.9 °C	44 %	55 km/h	Moderate 21
9 Aug	24.4 °C	36 %	67 km/h	High 26
10 Aug	20.5 °C	51 %	53 km/h	High 23
11 Aug	19.9 °C	54 %	44 km/h	Moderate 21
12 Aug after	20.6 °C	49 %	34 km/h	Moderate 18
13 Aug after	20.7 °C	53 %	37 km/h	Moderate 19
14 Aug after	21.0 °C	50 %	48 km/h	Moderate 21
15 Aug after	19.6 °C	55 %	44 km/h	Moderate 20
16 Aug after	20.3 °C	57 %	38 km/h	Moderate 18
17 Aug after	20.7 °C	56 %	27 km/h	Moderate 16
18 Aug after	20.4 °C	57 %	22 km/h	Moderate 16
19 Aug after	21.2 °C	56 %	21 km/h	Moderate 16
20 Aug after	21.3 °C	60 %	34 km/h	Moderate 17
21 Aug after	20.1 °C	51 %	39 km/h	Moderate 18
22 Aug after	20.2 °C	48 %	31 km/h	Moderate 18
23 Aug after	20.7 °C	44 %	30 km/h	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 1 Aug 2016

After · 18 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.

Detections table · 208Every 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 Canhas fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2016 and 11 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,264 hectares (32.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 7 municipalities: Canhas (691 ha, 41 %); Ponta do Sol (690 ha, 25 %); Arco da Calheta (578 ha, 39 %); Prazeres (460 ha, 46 %); Calheta (444 ha, 19 %); Estreito da Calheta (331 ha, 23 %); Fajã da Ovelha (80 ha, 3.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Prazeres. 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 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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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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