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Gouveia fire, 6 August 2016 União das Freguesias de Melo e Nabais, São Paio

Out · last measured on 7 Aug 2016

The fire started on 6 August 2016 in União das Freguesias de Melo e Nabais, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 103 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 August 2016 at 05:51 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2016.

It is the 10th largest in Gouveia since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 173 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
103ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
6 Aug 2016 – 7 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
6 Aug
2016
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
41km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 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

  1. União das Freguesias de Melo e Nabais 800 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town where it started
    71 ha
    4.9 %
  2. São Paio 699 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the town
    32 ha
    2.1 %

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

  • Other natural land89 %
  • Agricultural areas11 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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, this fire started on 7 August 2016 and burned 124 ha (the satellite measured 103 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)
6 Aug 32.2 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug 34.3 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Aug after 34.5 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Aug after 30.1 °C 24 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug after 26.9 °C 27 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Aug after 27.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug after 29.5 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Aug after 30.9 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Aug after 30.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug after 29.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Aug after 27.1 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Aug after 24.6 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jul 2016
After · 14 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 9 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak38 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1056 µg/m³
45678910
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gouveia fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 6 August 2016 and 7 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 August 2016 at 05:51 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Melo e Nabais (71 ha, 4.9 %); São Paio (32 ha, 2.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.5 km of União das Freguesias de Melo e Nabais. 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 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

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 (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.