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Cantanhede fire, 13 August 2017 Ourentã, União das Freguesias de Sepins e Bolho

Out · last measured on 13 Aug 2017

The fire started on 13 August 2017 in Ourentã, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 126 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 181 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Anadia · 2016Quiaios · 2017Águeda · 2016Vouzela · 2026

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
126ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
13 Aug 2017 – 13 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
13 Aug
2017
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

31°high
33km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 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

  1. Ourentã 1,126 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the centre where it started
    86 ha
    4.7 %
  2. União das Freguesias de Sepins e Bolho 1,711 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre
    40 ha
    2.3 %

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

  • Mixed forest74 %
  • Coniferous forest25 %
  • Agricultural areas0.8 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 11 August 2017 and burned 222 ha (the satellite measured 126 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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 30.9 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Aug after 25.9 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Aug after 26.7 °C 48 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Aug after 27.9 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug after 30.3 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug after 28.1 °C 54 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Aug after 31.9 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug after 38.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Aug after 32.3 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Aug after 28.6 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 27.0 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Aug 2017
After · 20 Aug 2017

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 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1044 µg/m³
111213141516
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cantanhede fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2017 and 13 August 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 126 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ourentã (86 ha, 4.7 %); União das Freguesias de Sepins e Bolho (40 ha, 2.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 1.7 km of the centre of União das Freguesias de Sepins e Bolho, 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 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 33 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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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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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 222 official ha against 126 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

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.