Almalaguês fire, September 2019 Almalaguês, Miranda do Corvo, União das Freguesias de Semide e Rio Vide e Ceira
The fire started on 14 September 2019 in Almalaguês, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 552 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
Number 10 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.
- Burnt area
- 552ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 14 Sept 2019 – 14 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 14 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 47
- in a single hotspot: 87 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 857MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.2 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
-
300 ha reached on 14 Sept13 %
-
Miranda do Corvo 7,104 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the town221 ha reached on 14 Sept4.8 %
-
União das Freguesias de Semide e Rio Vide e Ceira 3,337 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town32 ha0.8 %
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
- Mixed forest40 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland25 %
- Broadleaved forest21 %
- Coniferous forest7.8 %
- Agricultural areas6.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Sept | 30.6 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 53 % | 23 km/h | 8.2 mm | Very low 2 |
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 17 September 2019 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily 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 · 47Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Almalaguês fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 14 September 2019 and 14 September 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 552 hectares (5.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Almalaguês (300 ha, 13 %); Miranda do Corvo (221 ha, 4.8 %); União das Freguesias de Semide e Rio Vide e Ceira (32 ha, 0.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Almalaguês. 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 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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
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.