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Abrantes fire, July 2022 Tramagal, São Miguel do Rio Torto e Rossio ao Sul do Tejo

Out · last detection 7 Jul 2022, 02:12 UTC

The fire started on 6 July 2022 in Tramagal, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 106 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 July 2022 at 18:10 and declared extinguished on 7 July 2022.

Number 101 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (1.2 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
106ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
6 Jul 2022 – 7 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
6 Jul
2022
Heat detections
1
in a single hotspot: 1 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jul7 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

7

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
43km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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. Tramagal 2,837 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town where it started
    96 ha reached on 7 Jul
    4.0 %
  2. São Miguel do Rio Torto e Rossio ao Sul do Tejo 4,107 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town
    11 ha
    0.2 %

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

  • Broadleaved forest68 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland27 %
  • Agricultural areas5.6 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 6 July 2022 and burned 114 ha (the satellite measured 106 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)
6 Jul 33.6 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Jul 37.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Jul after 39.4 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
9 Jul after 40.4 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
10 Jul after 38.1 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Jul after 35.0 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Jul after 42.4 °C 3 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
13 Jul after 42.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Jul after 41.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
15 Jul after 39.0 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Jul after 39.0 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Jul after 38.3 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jun 2022
After · 14 Jul 2022

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 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1041 µg/m³
45678910
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 · 1Every 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 6 July 2022 and 7 July 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 July 2022 at 18:10 and declared extinguished on 7 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 106 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tramagal (96 ha, 4.0 %); São Miguel do Rio Torto e Rossio ao Sul do Tejo (11 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Tramagal. 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 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.