How long did the Sabugal fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2016 and 10 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 1,230 hectares (12.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bendada (726 ha, 21 %); Pousafoles do Bispo, Pena Lobo e Lomba (505 ha, 13 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.2 km of Bendada. 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 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.

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 · 2016-08-09 → 2016-08-10

Sabugal fire, August 2016 Bendada, Pousafoles do Bispo, Pena Lobo e Lomba

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

The fire started on 9 August 2016 in Pousafoles do Bispo, Pena Lobo e Lomba, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,230 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Sabugal since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 29 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area: 1,230ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 9 Aug 2016 – 10 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 9 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 75; in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start: 59; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 923MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug10 Aug

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

32°high

55km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Bendada 473 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town where it started

726 ha reached on 10 Aug

21 %
Pousafoles do Bispo, Pena Lobo e Lomba 390 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town

505 ha reached on 10 Aug

13 %

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 land77 %
Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
Agricultural areas6.9 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 9 August 2016 and burned 929 ha (the satellite measured 1,230 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Sabugal Pousafoles do Bispo 9 August 2016 · 23:36 929 ha · extinguished on 10 August 2016 · cause: negligence

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	Danger (FWI)
9 Aug	32.5 °C	20 %	55 km/h	Extreme 59
10 Aug	29.2 °C	27 %	55 km/h	Extreme 50
11 Aug after	30.4 °C	23 %	40 km/h	Very high 46
12 Aug after	32.1 °C	21 %	24 km/h	High 37
13 Aug after	33.6 °C	21 %	17 km/h	High 34
14 Aug after	33.3 °C	17 %	31 km/h	Very high 40
15 Aug after	32.6 °C	19 %	38 km/h	Very high 47
16 Aug after	30.4 °C	23 %	34 km/h	Very high 43
17 Aug after	28.0 °C	39 %	38 km/h	High 34
18 Aug after	30.0 °C	27 %	28 km/h	High 33
19 Aug after	27.1 °C	48 %	34 km/h	High 28
20 Aug after	26.4 °C	20 %	34 km/h	High 37

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Aug 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 13 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak45 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1069 µg/m³

WHO 15

78910111213

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 · 75Every 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 Sabugal fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2016 and 10 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 1,230 hectares (12.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bendada (726 ha, 21 %); Pousafoles do Bispo, Pena Lobo e Lomba (505 ha, 13 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.2 km of Bendada. 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 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
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?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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