How long did the Coruche fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2016 and 26 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 25 July 2016 at 14:38 and declared extinguished on 26 July 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 576 hectares (5.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Couço (578 ha, 1.7 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 13.5 km of Couço. 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 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2016-07-25 → 2016-07-26

Coruche fire, July 2016 Couço

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2016, 14:00 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2016 in Couço, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 576 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 25 July 2016 at 14:38 and declared extinguished on 26 July 2016.

Number 55 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area: 576ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 25 Jul 2016 – 26 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; freguesias
Started on: 25 Jul; 2016
Heat detections: 10; in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start: 53; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 212MW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Jul 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul26 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2526

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

45km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 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

Couço 2,271 inhabitants · 13.5 km from the town where it started

578 ha reached on 25 Jul

1.7 %

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 forest89 %
Agricultural areas7.4 %
Coniferous forest3.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 25 July 2016 and burned 471 ha (the satellite measured 576 ha).

Coruche Couço 25 July 2016 · 14:38 471 ha · extinguished on 26 July 2016 · cause: unknown

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	Danger (FWI)
25 Jul	40.1 °C	15 %	34 km/h	Extreme 53
26 Jul	36.9 °C	20 %	45 km/h	Extreme 58
27 Jul after	34.6 °C	27 %	28 km/h	Very high 43
28 Jul after	37.3 °C	23 %	35 km/h	Very high 46
29 Jul after	36.9 °C	26 %	39 km/h	Very high 48
30 Jul after	28.9 °C	39 %	36 km/h	High 36
31 Jul after	30.5 °C	38 %	44 km/h	Very high 39
1 Aug after	33.4 °C	31 %	40 km/h	Very high 39
2 Aug after	36.1 °C	26 %	41 km/h	Very high 45
3 Aug after	32.8 °C	30 %	49 km/h	Very high 49
4 Aug after	30.3 °C	47 %	50 km/h	High 37
5 Aug after	35.5 °C	25 %	41 km/h	Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Jul 2016

After · 2 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 29 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1039 µg/m³

WHO 15

23242526272829

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 · 10Every 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 Coruche fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2016 and 26 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 25 July 2016 at 14:38 and declared extinguished on 26 July 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 576 hectares (5.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Couço (578 ha, 1.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 13.5 km of Couço. 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 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

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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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.

Where it burned