How long did the Ribeiros fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 18 August 2016 and 19 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 119 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova (109 ha, 3.9 %); Ribeiros (10 ha, 2.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.4 km of Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova. 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 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2016-08-18 → 2016-08-19

Ribeiros fire, August 2016 Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova, Ribeiros

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2016, 01:47 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2016 in Ribeiros, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 119 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 161 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (7.8 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…

Suggestions: Celorico de Basto · 2024 Cabeceiras de Basto · 2024 Ribeira de Pena · 2016 Vila Real · 2025

Burnt area: 119ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 18 Aug 2016 – 19 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 18 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 4; in a single hotspot: 8 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 14MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug19 Aug

Play back 19 Aug 2016

How it evolved, day by day

18 Aug 19 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

25°high

36km/h · peak gust

40%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 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

Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova 1,656 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town

109 ha reached on 18 Aug

3.9 %
Ribeiros 545 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town where it started

10 ha reached on 18 Aug

2.0 %

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

Other natural land94 %
Mixed forest2.5 %
Agricultural areas2.5 %
Scrub and transitional woodland0.8 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 18 August 2016 and burned 152 ha (the satellite measured 119 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Fafe Ribeiros 18 August 2016 · 12:11 152 ha · extinguished on 18 August 2016 · cause: arson

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)
18 Aug	24.7 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
19 Aug	19.3 °C	69 %	35 km/h	1.9 mm	Low 6
20 Aug after	23.5 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
21 Aug after	28.4 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
22 Aug after	31.6 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
23 Aug after	31.4 °C	32 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
24 Aug after	27.3 °C	47 %	41 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Aug 2016

After · 26 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.

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 Ribeiros fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 18 August 2016 and 19 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 119 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova (109 ha, 3.9 %); Ribeiros (10 ha, 2.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.4 km of Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova. 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 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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

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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 4 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 152 official ha against 119 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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