Marco de Canaveses fire, August 2016 Bem Viver, Alpendorada, Várzea e Torrão
The fire started on 12 August 2016 in Bem Viver, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 154 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 12th largest in Marco de Canaveses since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 136 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 154ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 12 Aug 2016 – 12 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 12 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 35 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 76MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
12 Aug 2016 · 76 MW · 5
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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
128 ha reached on 12 Aug14 %
-
Alpendorada, Várzea e Torrão 8,056 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre26 ha1.6 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland76 %
- Agricultural areas16 %
- Artificial surfaces8.4 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Several official records match this area
According to ICNF, 5 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 203 ha (the satellite measured 154 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
When each one burned
1 45 ha 2 19 ha 3 9 ha 4 30 ha 5 100 ha- 1 Marco de Canaveses Alpendurada e Matos 7 August 2016 · 06:05 45 ha · extinguished on 7 August 2016 · cause: unknown
- 2 Marco de Canaveses Magrelos 8 August 2016 · 00:20 19 ha · extinguished on 8 August 2016 · cause: unknown
- 3 Penafiel Rio de Moinhos 10 August 2016 · 18:29 9 ha · extinguished on 10 August 2016 · cause: negligence
- 4 Marco de Canaveses Ariz 12 August 2016 · 06:09 30 ha · extinguished on 12 August 2016 · cause: rekindling
- 5 Marco de Canaveses Alpendurada e Matos 12 August 2016 · 09:45 100 ha · extinguished on 12 August 2016 · cause: rekindling
Total according to ICNF: 203 ha, 132 % of the 154 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Aug | 32.0 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Aug after | 24.2 °C | 49 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Aug after | 23.3 °C | 68 % | 36 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 8 |
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 11 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 77 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 43: 2.9 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 · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,706 haAguiar de SousaSeptember 2024 · 4 days · 8 km away
- 6,555 haArouca RealJuly 2025 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 8,253 haChaveOctober 2017 · 5 days · 17 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 30,331 haArouca Santa EuláliaAugust 2016 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 2,682 haCelorico de Basto Codeçoso14 September 2024 · 6 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Marco de Canaveses fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2016 and 12 August 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 154 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bem Viver (128 ha, 14 %); Alpendorada, Várzea e Torrão (26 ha, 1.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Bem Viver 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 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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. 5 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 203 official ha against 154 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.