Arcos de Valdevez fire, August 2017 Cabreiro, União das Freguesias de Alvora e Loureda
The fire started on 13 August 2017 in Cabreiro, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 150 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 12 August 2017 at 22:45 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2017.
It is the 21th largest in Arcos de Valdevez since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 164 in Portugal in 2017, of 211.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 150ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 13 Aug 2017 – 14 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 13 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 11
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 118MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 21 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
-
Cabreiro where it started95 ha reached on 13 Aug2.3 %
-
União das Freguesias de Alvora e Loureda 378 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre56 ha reached on 13 Aug5.5 %
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
- Other natural land66 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland34 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 158 ha (the satellite measured 150 ha).
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Arcos de Valdevez Cabreiro 12 August 2017 · 22:45 148 ha · extinguished on 14 August 2017 · cause: arson
- 2 Arcos de Valdevez Loureda 14 August 2017 · 12:36 10 ha · extinguished on 14 August 2017 · cause: rekindling
Total according to ICNF: 158 ha, 105 % of the 150 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug | 29.1 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Aug | 23.1 °C | 63 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 15 Aug after | 23.1 °C | 60 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 16 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 17 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 18 Aug after | 25.8 °C | 56 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 20 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 22 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 23 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 58 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 24 Aug after | 23.2 °C | 58 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 14 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 17 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 · 11Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 9 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 11 km away
- 3,333 haAs NevesOctober 2017 · 1 day · 19 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 21 km away
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Arcos de Valdevez fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2017 and 14 August 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 12 August 2017 at 22:45 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 150 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cabreiro (95 ha, 2.3 %); União das Freguesias de Alvora e Loureda (56 ha, 5.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 0.9 km of the centre of União das Freguesias de Alvora e Loureda, 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 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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 ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
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.
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. 11 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 158 official ha against 150 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.