How long did the Caminha fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 13 July 2022 and 15 July 2022: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 14:14 and declared extinguished on 14 July 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 316 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Lanhelas (182 ha, 37 %); Sopo (67 ha, 4.5 %); Vilar de Mouros (48 ha, 4.7 %); Gondarém (18 ha, 2.7 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Vilar de Mouros and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-07-13 → 2022-07-15

Caminha fire, July 2022 Lanhelas, Sopo, Vilar de Mouros

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2022, 03:02 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2022 in Vilar de Mouros, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 316 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 14:14 and declared extinguished on 14 July 2022.

Number 42 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.0 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: Caminha · 2016 Cabração e Moreira do Lima · 2016 Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda · 2016 Monção · 2017

Burnt area: 316ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 13 Jul 2022 – 15 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit: 4; freguesias
Started on: 13 Jul; 2022
Heat detections: 3; in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start: 16; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 10MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul15 Jul

Play back 15 Jul 2022

How it evolved, day by day

13 Jul 15 Jul

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

33km/h · peak gust

36%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 19 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Lanhelas 897 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

182 ha reached on 15 Jul

37 %
Sopo 497 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the centre

67 ha

4.5 %
Vilar de Mouros 725 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started

48 ha reached on 13 Jul

4.7 %
Gondarém 909 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre

18 ha

2.7 %

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 land55 %
Scrub and transitional woodland31 %
Mixed forest8.8 %
Coniferous forest4.4 %
Agricultural areas0.6 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020

Built-up area0.84 ha

Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.84 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 13 July 2022 and burned 327 ha (the satellite measured 316 ha).

Caminha Vilar de Mouros 13 July 2022 · 14:14 327 ha · extinguished on 14 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)
13 Jul	31.0 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
14 Jul	30.6 °C	36 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 19
15 Jul	23.9 °C	69 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
16 Jul after	23.4 °C	76 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
17 Jul after	23.4 °C	70 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 8
18 Jul after	22.4 °C	66 %	48 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 8
19 Jul after	19.8 °C	77 %	35 km/h	3.6 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Jul 2022

After · 22 Jul 2022

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 13 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1055 µg/m³

WHO 15

1112131415161718

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 · 3Every 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 Caminha fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 13 July 2022 and 15 July 2022: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 14:14 and declared extinguished on 14 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 316 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Lanhelas (182 ha, 37 %); Sopo (67 ha, 4.5 %); Vilar de Mouros (48 ha, 4.7 %); Gondarém (18 ha, 2.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Vilar de Mouros and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, 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 ›

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. 3 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 327 official ha against 316 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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