Monchique fire, September 2016 Mexilhoeira Grande, Monchique, Marmelete
The fire started on 3 September 2016 in Monchique, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 4,587 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 3 September 2016 at 17:08 and declared extinguished on 5 September 2016.
Number 6 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 4,587ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 7days
- 3 Sept 2016 – 9 Sept 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- freguesias
- Started on
- 3 Sept
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 281
- in a single hotspot: 245 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2.2GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 13 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Mexilhoeira Grande 4,315 inhabitants · 6.5 km from the centre2,211 ha reached on 8 Sept24 %
-
1,568 ha reached on 4 Sept9.8 %
-
Marmelete 698 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the centre545 ha reached on 4 Sept3.9 %
-
Portimão 49,237 inhabitants · 9.1 km from the centre271 ha reached on 9 Sept3.6 %
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 woodland56 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub26 %
- Agricultural areas15 %
- Artificial surfaces2.2 %
- Broadleaved forest1.4 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 13 %
- ZEPA + LIC Monchique PTCON0037
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 18 hectares of built-up land and about 450 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 3 September 2016 and burned 3,745 ha (the satellite measured 4,587 ha).
- Monchique Monchique 3 September 2016 · 17:08 3,745 ha · extinguished on 5 September 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Sept | 35.1 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Sept | 35.6 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 5 Sept | 39.4 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Sept | 37.1 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Sept | 29.6 °C | 38 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Sept | 27.3 °C | 38 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Sept | 26.5 °C | 39 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Sept after | 28.6 °C | 37 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 40 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 51 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Sept after | 22.8 °C | 46 % | 54 km/h | 4.1 mm | Low 10 |
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 4 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 114 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 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 · 281Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,121 haMonchique Mexilhoeira GrandeJuly 2021 · 2 days · 7 km away
- 27,635 haMonchiqueAugust 2018 · 8 days · 11 km away
- 940 haOdemira SaboiaAugust 2021 · 2 days · 17 km away
- 2,332 haAljezur União das Freguesias de Bensafrim e Barão de São JoãoSeptember 2025 · 4 days · 20 km away
- 8,145 haOdemira São TeotónioAugust 2023 · 9 days · 22 km away
- 2,352 haAljezur Vila do Bispo e RaposeiraJune 2020 · 3 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Monchique fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 September 2016 to 9 September 2016 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 September 2016 to 8 September 2016. According to ICNF, it was detected on 3 September 2016 at 17:08 and declared extinguished on 5 September 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 4,587 hectares (45.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Mexilhoeira Grande (2,211 ha, 24 %); Monchique (1,568 ha, 9.8 %); Marmelete (545 ha, 3.9 %); Portimão (271 ha, 3.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Monchique and came within 3.8 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 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 September 2016 to 8 September 2016. 281 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 3,745 official ha against 4,587 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.