How long did the Águeda fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2019 and 7 September 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 5 September 2019 at 16:28 and declared extinguished on 6 September 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 211 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Valongo do Vouga (128 ha, 3.0 %); União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha (83 ha, 2.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 1.4 km of the centre of União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha, 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 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2019-09-06 → 2019-09-07

Águeda fire, 6 September 2019 Valongo do Vouga, União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2019, 02:00 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2019 in Valongo do Vouga, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 211 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 5 September 2019 at 16:28 and declared extinguished on 6 September 2019.

Number 25 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Águeda · 2016 Pessegueiro do Vouga · 2024 Vouzela · 2026 Vouzela · 2017

Burnt area: 211ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 6 Sept 2019 – 7 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 6 Sept; 2019
Heat detections: 21; in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 94MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept7 Sept

Play back 7 Sept 2019

How it evolved, day by day

6 Sept 7 Sept

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

41km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 16 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Valongo do Vouga 4,637 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the centre where it started

128 ha reached on 6 Sept

3.0 %
União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha 11,346 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre

83 ha reached on 6 Sept

2.3 %

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

Mixed forest50 %
Broadleaved forest28 %
Scrub and transitional woodland20 %
Agricultural areas1.9 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 5 September 2019 and burned 199 ha (the satellite measured 211 ha).

Águeda Valongo do Vouga 5 September 2019 · 16:28 199 ha · extinguished on 6 September 2019 · 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)
6 Sept	29.3 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
7 Sept	30.4 °C	25 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
8 Sept after	30.3 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
9 Sept after	22.1 °C	59 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
10 Sept after	23.0 °C	36 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
11 Sept after	27.9 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Sept after	31.5 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
13 Sept after	33.8 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
14 Sept after	29.9 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.6 mm	High 26
15 Sept after	28.5 °C	43 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Sept after	25.6 °C	59 %	22 km/h	2.4 mm	Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 30 Aug 2019

After · 14 Sept 2019

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 4 September 2019 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1036 µg/m³

WHO 15

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 · 21Every 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

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Frequently asked questions

How long did the Águeda fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2019 and 7 September 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 5 September 2019 at 16:28 and declared extinguished on 6 September 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 211 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Valongo do Vouga (128 ha, 3.0 %); União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha (83 ha, 2.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 1.4 km of the centre of União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha, 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 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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 ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 21 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 199 official ha against 211 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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