How long did the Recarei fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 7 August 2016 and 10 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 359 hectares (3.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Recarei (332 ha, 23 %); Aguiar de Sousa (27 ha, 1.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Recarei. 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 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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.

PT · Portugal · 2016-08-07 → 2016-08-10

Recarei fire, August 2016 Recarei, Aguiar de Sousa

Out · last detection 10 Aug 2016, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2016 in Recarei, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 359 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 74 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area: 359ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 7 Aug 2016 – 10 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 7 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 4; in a single hotspot: 56 MW
Danger at start: 44; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 74MW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Aug 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug10 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

7810

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

49km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 19 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Recarei 4,479 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started

332 ha reached on 7 Aug

23 %
Aguiar de Sousa 1,582 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town

27 ha

1.2 %

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 woodland70 %
Artificial surfaces13 %
Agricultural areas11 %
Other natural land5.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

LIC Valongo PTCON0024

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.

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 Aug	35.5 °C	26 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
8 Aug	35.4 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
9 Aug	29.7 °C	42 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
10 Aug	29.4 °C	29 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
11 Aug after	29.7 °C	32 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
12 Aug after	31.5 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
13 Aug after	28.8 °C	35 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
14 Aug after	24.8 °C	54 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
15 Aug after	24.4 °C	55 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
16 Aug after	22.5 °C	57 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
17 Aug after	22.8 °C	70 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 17
18 Aug after	24.1 °C	47 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
19 Aug after	21.1 °C	69 %	30 km/h	1.5 mm	Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 31 Jul 2016

After · 17 Aug 2016

Before After

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 8 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 93 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 43: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak93 µg/m³

Days over the guideline7 days

PM10108 µg/m³

WHO 15

5678910111213

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 · 4Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Recarei fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 7 August 2016 and 10 August 2016: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 359 hectares (3.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Recarei (332 ha, 23 %); Aguiar de Sousa (27 ha, 1.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Recarei. 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 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned