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Oímbra fire, July 2016 Oímbra, Monterrei

Out · last measured on 23 Jul 2016

The fire started on 23 July 2016 in Oímbra, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 191 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 22 July 2016 at 17:30 and declared extinguished on 27 July 2016.

It is the 80th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 49 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
191ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
23 Jul 2016 – 23 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Jul
2016
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
32km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 30 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Oímbra 1,689 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town where it started
    108 ha
    1.5 %
  2. Monterrei 2,403 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the town
    83 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 land59 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland14 %
  • Agricultural areas12 %
  • Coniferous forest11 %
  • Artificial surfaces2.6 %
  • Broadleaved forest2.1 %

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 182 ha (the satellite measured 191 ha).

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)
23 Jul 29.3 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Jul after 32.1 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Jul after 33.7 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Jul after 33.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Jul after 31.6 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Jul after 34.2 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Jul after 34.2 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jul after 28.8 °C 50 % 34 km/h 4.5 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2016
After · 30 Jul 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 25 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 10 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak10 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1018 µg/m³
212223242526
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Oímbra fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2016 and 23 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 22 July 2016 at 17:30 and declared extinguished on 27 July 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 191 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Oímbra (108 ha, 1.5 %); Monterrei (83 ha, 0.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.1 km of Oímbra. 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 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 32 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 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

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 (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.