How long did the Castelo Branco fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2017 and 23 July 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 July 2017 at 15:30 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 708 hectares (7.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Oledo (549 ha, 20 %); União das Freguesias de Escalos de Cima e Lousa (160 ha, 3.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Oledo. 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 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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.

PT · Portugal · 2017-07-23 → 2017-07-23

Castelo Branco fire, 23 July 2017 Oledo, União das Freguesias de Escalos de Cima e Lousa

Out · last measured on 23 Jul 2017

The fire started on 23 July 2017 in Oledo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 708 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 July 2017 at 15:30 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2017.

Number 77 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

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: 708ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 23 Jul 2017 – 23 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 23 Jul; 2017
Danger at start: 45; Very high · FWI index

The weather it burned in

34°high

37km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 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

Oledo 284 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town where it started

549 ha

20 %
União das Freguesias de Escalos de Cima e Lousa 938 inhabitants · 5.6 km from the town

160 ha

3.1 %

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

Agricultural areas56 %
Other natural land38 %
Broadleaved forest5.3 %
Sclerophyllous scrub0.6 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 23 July 2017 and burned 613 ha (the satellite measured 708 ha).

Castelo Branco Lousa 23 July 2017 · 15:30 613 ha · extinguished on 24 July 2017 · 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	Danger (FWI)
23 Jul	34.2 °C	19 %	37 km/h	Very high 45
24 Jul after	34.1 °C	21 %	42 km/h	Very high 46
25 Jul after	34.8 °C	17 %	35 km/h	Very high 47
26 Jul after	35.8 °C	20 %	23 km/h	Very high 42
27 Jul after	36.7 °C	14 %	32 km/h	Very high 48
28 Jul after	36.1 °C	17 %	36 km/h	Extreme 50
29 Jul after	36.5 °C	21 %	36 km/h	Extreme 51
30 Jul after	34.0 °C	20 %	32 km/h	Very high 48
31 Jul after	27.1 °C	29 %	35 km/h	Very high 39
1 Aug after	30.0 °C	23 %	30 km/h	Very high 39
2 Aug after	34.0 °C	15 %	26 km/h	Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Jul 2017

After · 30 Jul 2017

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 24 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1022 µg/m³

212223242526

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 Castelo Branco fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2017 and 23 July 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 July 2017 at 15:30 and declared extinguished on 24 July 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 708 hectares (7.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Oledo (549 ha, 20 %); União das Freguesias de Escalos de Cima e Lousa (160 ha, 3.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Oledo. 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 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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