Monterrei fire, September 2016 Monterrei, Verín
The fire started on 7 September 2016 in Monterrei, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 362 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 7 September 2016 at 13:56 and declared extinguished on 10 September 2016.
It is the 55th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 33 in Spain in 2016, of 69.
The power measured by the satellite is low (2.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 362ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 7 Sept 2016 – 8 Sept 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 10
- in a single hotspot: 2 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 16MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
8 Sept 2016 · 16 MW · 10
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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 25.5 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
-
356 ha reached on 8 Sept3.0 %
-
Verín 13,956 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the centre6 ha reached on 8 Sept0.1 %
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 woodland38 %
- Broadleaved forest34 %
- Other natural land14 %
- Agricultural areas11 %
- Mixed forest2.5 %
- Coniferous forest2.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %
- LIC Río Támega ES1130005
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 EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 7 September 2016 and burned 305 ha (the satellite measured 362 ha).
- Monterrei 7 September 2016 · 13:56 305 ha · extinguished on 10 September 2016 · cause: arson
MITECO, Estadística General de Incendios Forestales (EGIF). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 32.8 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 8 Sept | 25.1 °C | 48 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Sept after | 25.6 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Sept after | 26.1 °C | 52 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 11 Sept after | 28.6 °C | 44 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 12 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 34 % | 49 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Sept after | 19.4 °C | 56 % | 65 km/h | 25.5 mm | Very low 1 |
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 7 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 118 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 65: 4.3 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 · 10Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 24,471 haMonterreiAugust 2025 · 8 days · 9 km away
- 3,493 haVilarelho Da RaiaAugust 2025 · 2 days · 16 km away
- 3,634 haLazaAugust 2022 · 7 days · 20 km away
- 7,090 haVilariño de ConsoJuly 2022 · 10 days · 27 km away
- 30,754 haChandrexa de QueixaAugust 2025 · 20 days · 30 km away
- 12,026 haA MezquitaAugust 2025 · 9 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Monterrei fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 7 September 2016 and 8 September 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 7 September 2016 at 13:56 and declared extinguished on 10 September 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 362 hectares (3.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Monterrei (356 ha, 3.0 %); Verín (6 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Monterrei 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 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Spain (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 ›
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. 10 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 305 official ha against 362 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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.