How long did the Gondomar fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 5 August 2016 and 7 August 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 286 hectares (2.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Melres e Medas (213 ha, 7.7 %); Rio Mau (70 ha, 11 %); Sobreira (3 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Rio Mau. 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 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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 · 2016-08-05 → 2016-08-07

Gondomar fire, 5 August 2016 União das Freguesias de Melres e Medas, Rio Mau, Sobreira

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2016, 13:35 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2016 in União das Freguesias de Melres e Medas, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 286 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 85 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area: 286ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 5 Aug 2016 – 7 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 5 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 23; in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start: 24; High · FWI index
Energy released: 347MW; sum of detected power

Play back 7 Aug 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug7 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

43km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 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

União das Freguesias de Melres e Medas 5,295 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town where it started

213 ha reached on 6 Aug

7.7 %
Rio Mau 1,340 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town

70 ha reached on 7 Aug

11 %
Sobreira 4,124 inhabitants · 7.4 km from the town

3 ha

0.1 %

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 woodland96 %
Agricultural areas3.5 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 5 August 2016 and burned 365 ha (the satellite measured 286 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Gondomar Melres 5 August 2016 · 15:30 365 ha · extinguished on 6 August 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	Rain	Danger (FWI)
5 Aug	29.2 °C	44 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
6 Aug	34.5 °C	24 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
7 Aug	36.8 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
8 Aug after	36.5 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
9 Aug after	30.7 °C	41 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
10 Aug after	30.6 °C	30 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
11 Aug after	31.0 °C	32 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
12 Aug after	32.6 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
13 Aug after	30.4 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
14 Aug after	26.1 °C	51 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
15 Aug after	25.7 °C	52 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
16 Aug after	23.9 °C	55 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
17 Aug after	23.4 °C	71 %	36 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Jul 2016

After · 14 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 8 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 79 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak79 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1092 µg/m³

WHO 15

345678910

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 · 23Every 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 Gondomar fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 5 August 2016 and 7 August 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 286 hectares (2.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Melres e Medas (213 ha, 7.7 %); Rio Mau (70 ha, 11 %); Sobreira (3 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Rio Mau. 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 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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

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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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