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Correns fire, July 2016 Montfort-sur-Argens, Correns

Out · last detection 19 Jul 2016, 01:27 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2016 in Correns, France, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 599 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Var since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 6 in France in 2016, of 11.

Burnt area
599ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
18 Jul 2016 – 19 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
18 Jul
2016
Heat detections
25
in a single hotspot: 446 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1819

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
40km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.8 mm on 23 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Montfort-sur-Argens 1,453 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    383 ha reached on 18 Jul
    32 %
  2. Correns 886 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town where it started
    217 ha reached on 18 Jul
    5.8 %

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

  • Other natural land80 %
  • Agricultural areas11 %
  • Coniferous forest6.7 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 92 %

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.

Official record

According to BDIFF, a fire of 632 ha was recorded in Correns on 18 July 2016 (the satellite measured 599 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.

BDIFF (Base de Données sur les Incendies de Forêts en France). 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)
18 Jul 29.7 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul 31.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Jul after 30.7 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul after 31.8 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
22 Jul after 29.9 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
23 Jul after 27.0 °C 48 % 35 km/h 14.8 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jul 2016
After · 26 Jul 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.

Detections table · 25Every 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 France ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Correns fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 18 July 2016 and 19 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 599 hectares (6.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Montfort-sur-Argens (383 ha, 32 %); Correns (217 ha, 5.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.2 km of Montfort-sur-Argens. 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 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of France (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 · 18

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 · 18.

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 ADM5 (Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0). 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.