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Castelo Branco fire, 26 July 2016 Monforte da Beira

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2016, 02:19 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2016 in Monforte da Beira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,316 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 26 July 2016 at 14:55 and declared extinguished on 27 July 2016.

Number 27 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (1.0 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
1,316ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
26 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
freguesias
Started on
26 Jul
2016
Heat detections
1
in a single hotspot: 1 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

27

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 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. Monforte da Beira 320 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town where it started
    1,318 ha reached on 27 Jul
    11 %

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 woodland55 %
  • Agricultural areas37 %
  • Other natural land5.0 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub2.8 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 26 July 2016 and burned 1,199 ha (the satellite measured 1,316 ha).

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 38.3 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jul 36.5 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jul after 37.7 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Jul after 37.3 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Jul after 30.9 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jul after 31.6 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Aug after 34.2 °C 23 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Aug after 36.7 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Aug after 36.0 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Aug after 31.6 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Aug after 35.0 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug after 37.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jul 2016
After · 3 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 30 July 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
PM1040 µg/m³
24252627282930
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 · 1Every 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 Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Castelo Branco fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2016 and 27 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 26 July 2016 at 14:55 and declared extinguished on 27 July 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,316 hectares (13.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Monforte da Beira (1,318 ha, 11 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of Monforte da Beira. 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 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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.

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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.