Manteigas fire, 30 July 2016 Manteigas (São Pedro)
The fire started on 30 July 2016 in Manteigas (São Pedro), Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 209 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 107 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 209ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 30 Jul 2016 – 31 Jul 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- freguesias
- Started on
- 30 Jul
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 18
- in a single hotspot: 619 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 810MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
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
It had gone 22 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
-
209 ha reached on 30 Jul3.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land42 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland30 %
- Coniferous forest21 %
- Agricultural areas6.2 %
- Mixed forest1.4 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Serra da Estrela PTCON0014
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 30 July 2016 and burned 150 ha (the satellite measured 209 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Manteigas São Pedro 30 July 2016 · 13:05 150 ha · extinguished on 31 July 2016 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jul | 23.8 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jul | 23.2 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Aug after | 21.2 °C | 54 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 5 Aug after | 26.2 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 24 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 27 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 30 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 18Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 25,260 haSerra da Estrela SameiroAugust 2022 · 18 days · 8 km away
- 19,125 haSeia Pamos Da SerraOctober 2017 · 8 days · 11 km away
- 8,554 haPenalva do Castelo Vila Cova do Covelo/MarecoSeptember 2024 · 5 days · 29 km away
- 68,190 haArganil Sobral de São MiguelAugust 2025 · 15 days · 30 km away
- 6,531 haCastelo Branco Louriçal do CampoAugust 2017 · 4 days · 35 km away
- 23,594 haSabugal Quintas de São BartolomeuAugust 2025 · 7 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manteigas fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 30 July 2016 and 31 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 209 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Manteigas (São Pedro) (209 ha, 3.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Manteigas (São Pedro) and came within 1.5 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.8 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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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How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 18 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 150 official ha against 209 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.