How long did the Vale do Côa fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 20 August 2016 and 21 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 August 2016 at 17:09 and declared extinguished on 21 August 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 201 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vale do Côa (191 ha, 3.6 %); Ervedosa (10 ha, 0.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Vale do Côa. 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 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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 · 2016-08-20 → 2016-08-21

Vale do Côa fire, 20 August 2016 Vale do Côa, Ervedosa

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2016, 02:50 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2016 in Vale do Côa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 201 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 August 2016 at 17:09 and declared extinguished on 21 August 2016.

It is the 8th largest in Pinhel since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 111 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (3.8 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: 201ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 20 Aug 2016 – 21 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 20 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 6; in a single hotspot: 4 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 17MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug21 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

30°high

34km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 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

Vale do Côa 172 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town where it started

191 ha reached on 21 Aug

3.6 %
Ervedosa 137 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town

10 ha reached on 21 Aug

0.8 %

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 woodland87 %
Agricultural areas13 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 20 August 2016 and burned 189 ha (the satellite measured 201 ha).

Pinhel Azevo 20 August 2016 · 17:09 189 ha · extinguished on 21 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	Rain	Danger (FWI)
20 Aug	25.9 °C	26 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 Aug	30.5 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
22 Aug after	34.9 °C	19 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
23 Aug after	35.6 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 38
24 Aug after	33.4 °C	34 %	29 km/h	1.4 mm	High 23

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Aug 2016

After · 28 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 24 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1035 µg/m³

WHO 15

18192021222324

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 · 6Every 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 Vale do Côa fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 20 August 2016 and 21 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 August 2016 at 17:09 and declared extinguished on 21 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 201 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vale do Côa (191 ha, 3.6 %); Ervedosa (10 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Vale do Côa. 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 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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