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Pinhel fire, August 2016 Vale do Côa, Valbom/Bogalhal, Freixeda do Torrão, Quintã de Pêro Martins e Penha de Águia

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2016, 14:32 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2016 in Vale do Côa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 391 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Pinhel since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 68 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area
391ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
20 Aug 2016 – 20 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
4
freguesias
Started on
20 Aug
2016
Heat detections
8
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
114MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

20

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
31km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Vale do Côa 172 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town where it started
    292 ha reached on 20 Aug
    5.6 %
  2. Valbom/Bogalhal 192 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town
    69 ha
    2.1 %
  3. Freixeda do Torrão, Quintã de Pêro Martins e Penha de Águia 387 inhabitants · 5.8 km from the town
    31 ha
    0.5 %
  4. Colmeal e Vilar Torpim 196 inhabitants · 9.1 km from the town
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland48 %
  • Other natural land43 %
  • Agricultural areas8.4 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 68 %

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 ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,057 ha (the satellite measured 391 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
20 Aug 27.2 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug after 31.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug after 36.2 °C 18 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug after 37.0 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Aug after 35.5 °C 31 % 32 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Aug 2016
After · 27 Aug 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 23 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1034 µg/m³
181920212223
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 Pinhel fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 20 August 2016 and 20 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 391 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Vale do Côa (292 ha, 5.6 %); Valbom/Bogalhal (69 ha, 2.1 %); Freixeda do Torrão, Quintã de Pêro Martins e Penha de Águia (31 ha, 0.5 %); Colmeal e Vilar Torpim (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.4 km of Vale do Côa. 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 27.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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
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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.