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Abrantes fire, August 2017 Aldeia do Mato e Souto, Abrantes (São Vicente e São João) e Alferrarede, Rio de Moinhos

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2017, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2017 in Rio de Moinhos, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 4,079 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 9 August 2017 at 18:14 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2017.

Number 21 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
4,079ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
9 Aug 2017 – 12 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
9 Aug
2017
Heat detections
194
in a single hotspot: 350 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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
61km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 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

  1. Aldeia do Mato e Souto 676 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    2,203 ha reached on 10 Aug
    49 %
  2. Abrantes (São Vicente e São João) e Alferrarede 16,124 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town where it started
    1,213 ha reached on 10 Aug
    19 %
  3. Rio de Moinhos 952 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    669 ha reached on 10 Aug
    33 %

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 woodland67 %
  • Broadleaved forest24 %
  • Agricultural areas8.2 %

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 2017 and burned 4,621 ha (the satellite measured 4,079 ha).

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)
9 Aug 27.8 °C 28 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Aug 30.5 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Aug 33.4 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Aug 35.5 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Aug after 36.3 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Aug after 32.0 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Aug after 29.4 °C 28 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug after 30.9 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Aug after 34.2 °C 30 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Aug after 32.3 °C 31 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug after 36.0 °C 21 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Aug after 38.7 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Aug after 35.3 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Aug after 34.0 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Aug after 31.6 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Aug 2017
After · 19 Aug 2017

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 10 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak80 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1098 µg/m³
78910111213141516
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 · 194Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Abrantes fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2017 and 12 August 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 9 August 2017 at 18:14 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 4,079 hectares (40.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Aldeia do Mato e Souto (2,203 ha, 49 %); Abrantes (São Vicente e São João) e Alferrarede (1,213 ha, 19 %); Rio de Moinhos (669 ha, 33 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Aldeia do Mato e Souto. 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 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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

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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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.