Skip to content
worldfires
PT · Portugal · →

Montalegre fire, 4 September 2016 Paradela, Contim e Fiães, Viade de Baixo e Fervidelas

Out · last detection 6 Sept 2016, 14:13 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2016 in Paradela, Contim e Fiães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 251 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 4 September 2016 at 12:12 and declared extinguished on 5 September 2016.

It is the 17th largest in Montalegre since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 94 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.7 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
251ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
4 Sept 2016 – 6 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
4 Sept
2016
Heat detections
8
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
77MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept6 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

456

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
55km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 32.8 mm on 13 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Paradela, Contim e Fiães 245 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    217 ha reached on 4 Sept
    7.0 %
  2. Viade de Baixo e Fervidelas 695 inhabitants · 5.1 km from the town
    34 ha
    0.7 %

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 land50 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland38 %
  • Broadleaved forest7.9 %
  • Agricultural areas4.7 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to ICNF, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 246 ha (the satellite measured 251 ha).

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)
4 Sept 26.6 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Sept 27.7 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Sept 30.5 °C 24 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Sept after 25.8 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Sept after 21.0 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Sept after 21.3 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Sept after 21.2 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Sept after 23.1 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
12 Sept after 23.2 °C 45 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Sept after 15.3 °C 62 % 58 km/h 32.8 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2016
After · 13 Sept 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 7 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 92 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak92 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10130 µg/m³
23456789
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 · 8Every 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 Montalegre fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 4 September 2016 and 6 September 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 4 September 2016 at 12:12 and declared extinguished on 5 September 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 251 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paradela, Contim e Fiães (217 ha, 7.0 %); Viade de Baixo e Fervidelas (34 ha, 0.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Paradela, Contim e Fiães. 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 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.