Alijó fire, July 2022 Vila Verde, Fiolhoso
The fire started on 23 July 2022 in Vila Verde, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 188 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 July 2022 at 15:59 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2022.
It is the 8th largest in Alijó since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 73 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.
The power measured by the satellite is low (9.2 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…
- Burnt area
- 188ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 23 Jul 2022 – 24 Jul 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 23 Jul
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 9 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 22MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
24 Jul 2022 · 22 MW · 4
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 17 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
-
189 ha reached on 24 Jul4.5 %
-
Fiolhoso 416 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town0 ha0.0 %
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
- Other natural land85 %
- Artificial surfaces14 %
- Agricultural areas0.5 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 23 July 2022 and burned 188 ha (the satellite measured 188 ha).
- Alijó Vila Verde 23 July 2022 · 15:59 188 ha · extinguished on 24 July 2022 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jul | 31.4 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 24 Jul | 29.0 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Jul after | 29.0 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Jul after | 27.9 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Jul after | 29.0 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Jul after | 27.4 °C | 38 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Jul after | 29.4 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Jul after | 33.5 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Jul after | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 Aug after | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Aug after | 31.5 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 38 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 21 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 4Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 10 km away
- 7,641 haMurça TresminasJuly 2022 · 5 days · 12 km away
- 6,118 haVila Pouca de Aguiar Telões17 September 2024 · 3 days · 15 km away
- 5,850 haVila Real Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã21 August 2022 · 6 days · 16 km away
- 6,087 haVila Real Vila Marim3 August 2025 · 13 days · 23 km away
- 5,163 haMirandela FrechasAugust 2025 · 3 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Alijó fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2022 and 24 July 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 July 2022 at 15:59 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 188 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vila Verde (189 ha, 4.5 %); Fiolhoso (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Vila Verde. 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 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 4 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 188 official ha against 188 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.