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Pontevedra fire, August 2016 Pontevedra, Soutomaior

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2016, 14:01 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2016 in Pontevedra, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 316 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 10 August 2016 at 16:44 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2016.

It is the 21th largest in Pontevedra since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 36 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

The power measured by the satellite is low (6.3 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
316ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
9 Aug 2016 – 11 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Aug
2016
Heat detections
9
in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
29MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug11 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1011

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
65km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 17 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. Pontevedra 83,316 inhabitants · 8.7 km from the town where it started
    252 ha reached on 10 Aug
    2.1 %
  2. Soutomaior 7,589 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town
    64 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.6 %

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 woodland37 %
  • Broadleaved forest30 %
  • Agricultural areas22 %
  • Other natural land9.7 %
  • Other land cover1.2 %

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 309 ha (the satellite measured 316 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)
9 Aug 28.3 °C 46 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Aug 29.0 °C 34 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Aug 31.4 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Aug after 31.3 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Aug after 28.0 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Aug after 27.2 °C 54 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Aug after 26.5 °C 61 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
16 Aug after 23.3 °C 56 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Aug after 23.4 °C 70 % 34 km/h 2.0 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Aug 2016
After · 18 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 13 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak54 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1065 µg/m³
7891011121314
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 · 9Every 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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pontevedra fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2016 and 11 August 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 10 August 2016 at 16:44 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 316 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pontevedra (252 ha, 2.1 %); Soutomaior (64 ha, 2.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.9 km of Soutomaior. 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 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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
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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 (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.