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Guarda fire, July 2016 Aldeia Viçosa, União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz, Vila Cortês do Mondego

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2016, 03:15 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2016 in Aldeia Viçosa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 284 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Guarda since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 86 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.6 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
284ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
24 Jul 2016 – 24 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
4
freguesias
Started on
24 Jul
2016
Heat detections
23
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
179MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul24 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

24

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
32km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 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. Aldeia Viçosa 267 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town where it started
    127 ha reached on 24 Jul
    17 %
  2. União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz 242 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    98 ha reached on 24 Jul
    6.1 %
  3. Vila Cortês do Mondego 283 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    52 ha reached on 24 Jul
    12 %
  4. Lajeosa do Mondego 627 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the town
    7 ha reached on 24 Jul
    0.5 %

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 land79 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland18 %
  • Agricultural areas3.6 %

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 24 July 2016 and burned 205 ha (the satellite measured 284 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
24 Jul 31.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jul after 33.6 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul after 33.7 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jul after 32.9 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul after 34.3 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jul after 34.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul after 27.4 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul after 26.7 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Aug after 29.7 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Aug after 32.9 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Aug after 31.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jul 2016
After · 31 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 27 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak14 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1022 µg/m³
222324252627
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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Guarda fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 24 July 2016 and 24 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 284 hectares (2.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Aldeia Viçosa (127 ha, 17 %); União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz (98 ha, 6.1 %); Vila Cortês do Mondego (52 ha, 12 %); Lajeosa do Mondego (7 ha, 0.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.6 km of Vila Cortês do Mondego. 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 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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
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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.