Skip to content
worldfires
PT · Portugal · →

Ferral fire, August 2016 Cabril, Covelo do Gerês, Ferral

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2016, 14:01 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2016 in Ferral, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 152 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 9 August 2016 at 23:06 and declared extinguished on 10 August 2016.

It is the 36th largest in Montalegre since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 139 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.8 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
152ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
9 Aug 2016 – 10 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
9 Aug
2016
Heat detections
20
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
137MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug10 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1011

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
53km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 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. Cabril 4.0 km from the town
    88 ha reached on 10 Aug
    1.2 %
  2. Covelo do Gerês 166 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town
    51 ha reached on 10 Aug
    4.6 %
  3. Ferral 293 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town where it started
    14 ha reached on 10 Aug
    0.9 %

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 woodland77 %
  • Other natural land19 %
  • Agricultural areas3.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 58 %

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 ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 152 ha (the satellite measured 152 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)
9 Aug 28.5 °C 41 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Aug 28.1 °C 25 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Aug after 28.5 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Aug after 30.5 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Aug after 30.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug after 30.3 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
15 Aug after 28.6 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
16 Aug after 25.5 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Aug after 23.9 °C 62 % 41 km/h 1.7 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Aug 2016
After · 17 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.

Detections table · 20Every 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 Ferral fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2016 and 10 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 9 August 2016 at 23:06 and declared extinguished on 10 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 152 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cabril (88 ha, 1.2 %); Covelo do Gerês (51 ha, 4.6 %); Ferral (14 ha, 0.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Covelo do Gerês. 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 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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

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.

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.