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Castelejo fire, September 2017 União das Freguesias de Barco e Coutada, Telhado, Castelejo

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2017, 02:50 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2017 in Castelejo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,434 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 5 September 2017 at 15:45 and declared extinguished on 6 September 2017.

Number 31 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,434ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
8 Sept 2017 – 9 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
9
freguesias
Started on
8 Sept
2017
Heat detections
3
in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
24MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

9

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

28°high
64km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 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. União das Freguesias de Barco e Coutada 406 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    836 ha
    35 %
  2. Telhado 579 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town
    758 ha reached on 9 Sept
    43 %
  3. Castelejo 562 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town where it started
    354 ha reached on 9 Sept
    12 %
  4. Lavacolhos 180 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    281 ha
    14 %
  5. Paul 1,363 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town
    155 ha
    6.5 %
  6. Alcaria 1,101 inhabitants · 4.9 km from the town
    41 ha
    1.9 %
  7. Casegas 425 inhabitants · 5.3 km from the town
    10 ha
    0.2 %
  8. Silvares 372 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town
    1 ha
    0.1 %
  9. Souto da Casa 746 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland60 %
  • Agricultural areas18 %
  • Other natural land16 %
  • Coniferous forest4.7 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.3 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 2,611 ha (the satellite measured 2,434 ha).

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)
8 Sept 28.5 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept 20.7 °C 38 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept after 23.9 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Sept after 26.7 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Sept after 25.6 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Sept after 29.2 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Sept after 25.9 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Sept after 20.7 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept after 20.3 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Sept after 21.3 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Sept after 22.2 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Sept after 25.1 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2017
After · 16 Sept 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.

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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Castelejo fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 8 September 2017 and 9 September 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 5 September 2017 at 15:45 and declared extinguished on 6 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,434 hectares (24.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Barco e Coutada (836 ha, 35 %); Telhado (758 ha, 43 %); Castelejo (354 ha, 12 %); Lavacolhos (281 ha, 14 %); Paul (155 ha, 6.5 %); Alcaria (41 ha, 1.9 %); Casegas (10 ha, 0.2 %); Silvares (1 ha, 0.1 %); Souto da Casa (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Telhado. 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 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

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.