Manteigas fire, 31 July 2016 Sameiro
The fire started on 31 July 2016 in Sameiro, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 216 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 31 July 2016 at 09:35 and declared extinguished on 1 August 2016.
Number 104 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 216ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 31 Jul 2016 – 1 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- freguesias
- Started on
- 31 Jul
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 14
- in a single hotspot: 79 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 206MW
- 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 23 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
-
216 ha reached on 31 Jul9.7 %
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 land47 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland24 %
- Mixed forest20 %
- Coniferous forest9.3 %
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 31 July 2016 and burned 255 ha (the satellite measured 216 ha).
- Manteigas Sameiro 31 July 2016 · 09:35 255 ha · extinguished on 1 August 2016 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jul | 25.2 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Aug | 28.5 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 4 Aug after | 23.1 °C | 54 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Aug after | 33.9 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 8 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 24 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 27 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 14Every 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 · 3 km away
- 19,125 haSeia Pamos Da SerraOctober 2017 · 8 days · 13 km away
- 8,554 haPenalva do Castelo Vila Cova do Covelo/MarecoSeptember 2024 · 5 days · 29 km away
- 23,594 haSabugal Quintas de São BartolomeuAugust 2025 · 7 days · 31 km away
- 68,190 haArganil Sobral de São MiguelAugust 2025 · 15 days · 34 km away
- 9,523 haGuarda Alverca da Beira/Bouça CovaAugust 2025 · 3 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manteigas fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 31 July 2016 and 1 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 31 July 2016 at 09:35 and declared extinguished on 1 August 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 216 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sameiro (216 ha, 9.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Sameiro and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 14 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 255 official ha against 216 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.