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Cerdedo-Cotobade fire, August 2016 Cerdedo-Cotobade, Pontevedra

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2016, 13:42 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2016 in Cerdedo-Cotobade, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 524 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2016 at 17:20 and declared extinguished on 12 August 2016.

It is the 12th largest in Pontevedra since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 23 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.4 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
524ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
8 Aug 2016 – 11 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Aug
2016
Heat detections
54
in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
160MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug11 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

91112

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
71km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 17 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Cerdedo-Cotobade 5,671 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town where it started
    480 ha reached on 9 Aug
    2.2 %
  2. Pontevedra 83,316 inhabitants · 7.7 km from the town
    44 ha reached on 9 Aug
    0.4 %

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

  • Broadleaved forest45 %
  • Other natural land21 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland17 %
  • Mixed forest9.4 %
  • Agricultural areas7.0 %

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 537 ha (the satellite measured 524 ha).

MITECO, Estadística General de Incendios Forestales (EGIF). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
8 Aug 33.4 °C 40 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Aug 26.9 °C 47 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Aug 27.2 °C 39 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Aug 31.2 °C 25 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Aug after 31.8 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Aug after 28.3 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Aug after 28.1 °C 47 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
15 Aug after 26.9 °C 58 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Aug after 23.2 °C 53 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Aug after 23.2 °C 66 % 32 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 5

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

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 13 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak51 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1059 µg/m³
6789101112131415
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 · 54Every 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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cerdedo-Cotobade fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2016 and 11 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2016 at 17:20 and declared extinguished on 12 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 524 hectares (5.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cerdedo-Cotobade (480 ha, 2.2 %); Pontevedra (44 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.4 km of Cerdedo-Cotobade. 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 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Spain (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
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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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.