Ribeiros fire, September 2016 Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova, Ribeiros
The fire started on 3 September 2016 in Ribeiros, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 101 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 176 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.
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- Burnt area
- 101ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 3 Sept 2016 – 4 Sept 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 3 Sept
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 32 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 59MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 26.8 mm on 13 Sept.
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 · 1.1 km from the centre82 ha reached on 3 Sept2.9 %
-
19 ha reached on 3 Sept3.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land50 %
- Mixed forest25 %
- Agricultural areas16 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland9.8 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 2.0 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 3 September 2016 and burned 76 ha (the satellite measured 101 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Fafe Moreira do Rei 3 September 2016 · 10:49 76 ha · extinguished on 3 September 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Sept | 30.6 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Sept | 30.3 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Sept after | 28.0 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Sept after | 24.1 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Sept after | 24.6 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Sept after | 24.2 °C | 52 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Sept after | 26.1 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 12 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 46 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Sept after | 18.5 °C | 64 % | 54 km/h | 26.8 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 6Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,682 haCelorico de Basto Codeçoso14 September 2024 · 6 days · 17 km away
- 2,728 haCabeceiras de Basto Cavez14 September 2024 · 6 days · 21 km away
- 2,869 haRibeira de Pena AlvãoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 29 km away
- 6,087 haVila Real Vila Marim3 August 2025 · 13 days · 30 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 33 km away
- 5,850 haVila Real Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã21 August 2022 · 6 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ribeiros fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 3 September 2016 and 4 September 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 101 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova (82 ha, 2.9 %); Ribeiros (19 ha, 3.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 1.1 km of the centre of Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 6 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 76 official ha against 101 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.