How long did the Celorico de Basto fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 August 2016 to 2 August 2016 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 August 2016 to 2 August 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 479 hectares (4.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Basto (São Clemente) (428 ha, 27 %); Ribas (24 ha, 2.9 %); Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova (22 ha, 0.8 %); São Gens (6 ha, 0.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 0.6 km of the centre of Basto (São Clemente), the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 31 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.

PT · Portugal · 2016-08-01 → 2016-08-02

Celorico de Basto fire, August 2016 Basto (São Clemente), Ribas, Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2016, 13:29 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2016 in Ribas, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 479 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Celorico de Basto since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 61 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cabeceiras de Basto · 2024 Vila Real · 2025 Ribeira de Pena · 2016 Vila Real · 2022

Burnt area: 479ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 1 Aug 2016 – 2 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 4; freguesias
Started on: 1 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 1; in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start: 28; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 19MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug2 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2 Aug 2016 · 19 MW · 1

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

The weather it burned in

30°high

31km/h · peak gust

32%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 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

Basto (São Clemente) 1,382 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre

428 ha

27 %
Ribas 900 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre where it started

24 ha reached on 2 Aug

2.9 %
Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova 1,656 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the centre

22 ha

0.8 %
São Gens 1,643 inhabitants · 5.5 km from the centre

6 ha

0.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

Other natural land62 %
Scrub and transitional woodland19 %
Agricultural areas16 %
Mixed forest3.1 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015

Built-up area7.0 ha

Residents≈ 450

Inside the perimeter there were about 7.0 hectares of built-up land and about 450 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
2 Aug	30.5 °C	32 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
3 Aug after	28.1 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
4 Aug after	21.6 °C	67 %	46 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 14
5 Aug after	27.8 °C	33 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
6 Aug after	31.8 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
7 Aug after	34.9 °C	19 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
8 Aug after	35.0 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
9 Aug after	28.7 °C	35 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
10 Aug after	27.0 °C	23 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
11 Aug after	27.4 °C	25 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
12 Aug after	29.5 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 25 Jul 2016

After · 9 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 12 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³

Days over the guideline3 days

PM1066 µg/m³

WHO 15

3112345678910111213

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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Celorico de Basto fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 August 2016 to 2 August 2016 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 August 2016 to 2 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 479 hectares (4.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Basto (São Clemente) (428 ha, 27 %); Ribas (24 ha, 2.9 %); Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova (22 ha, 0.8 %); São Gens (6 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 0.6 km of the centre of Basto (São Clemente), the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 31 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 August 2016 to 2 August 2016. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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