How long did the Alijó fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 24 July 2019 and 25 July 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 July 2019 at 15:05 and declared extinguished on 25 July 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 685 hectares (6.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 5 municipalities: Pópulo e Ribalonga (451 ha, 21 %); Fiolhoso (203 ha, 12 %); Murça (17 ha, 1.2 %); Pegarinhos (13 ha, 0.7 %); Vila Verde (1 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Pópulo e Ribalonga. 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 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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 · 2019-07-24 → 2019-07-25

Alijó fire, July 2019 Pópulo e Ribalonga, Fiolhoso, Murça

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2019, 02:24 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2019 in Pópulo e Ribalonga, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 685 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 July 2019 at 15:05 and declared extinguished on 25 July 2019.

It is the 5th largest in Alijó since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 7 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.

The power measured by the satellite is low (1.8 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: 685ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 24 Jul 2019 – 25 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit: 5; freguesias
Started on: 24 Jul; 2019
Heat detections: 6; in a single hotspot: 2 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 7MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul25 Jul

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

31°high

42km/h · peak gust

33%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 27 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Pópulo e Ribalonga 409 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town

451 ha reached on 25 Jul

21 %
Fiolhoso 416 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town where it started

203 ha reached on 25 Jul

12 %
Murça 1,964 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town

17 ha

1.2 %
Pegarinhos 394 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town

13 ha

0.7 %
Vila Verde 4.3 km from the town

1 ha

0.0 %

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

Agricultural areas40 %
Scrub and transitional woodland35 %
Other natural land25 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 24 July 2019 and burned 593 ha (the satellite measured 685 ha).

Alijó Ribalonga 24 July 2019 · 15:05 593 ha · extinguished on 25 July 2019 · 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)
24 Jul	31.2 °C	33 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
25 Jul	25.9 °C	47 %	42 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
26 Jul after	24.4 °C	35 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
27 Jul after	23.2 °C	54 %	34 km/h	1.1 mm	Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Jul 2019

After · 1 Aug 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 23 July 2019 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1038 µg/m³

WHO 15

22232425262728

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 Alijó fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 24 July 2019 and 25 July 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 July 2019 at 15:05 and declared extinguished on 25 July 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 685 hectares (6.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 5 municipalities: Pópulo e Ribalonga (451 ha, 21 %); Fiolhoso (203 ha, 12 %); Murça (17 ha, 1.2 %); Pegarinhos (13 ha, 0.7 %); Vila Verde (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Pópulo e Ribalonga. 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 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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

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