How long did the Celorico da Beira fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2017 and 24 August 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2017 at 14:31 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,109 hectares (11.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 9 municipalities: Lajeosa do Mondego (294 ha, 23 %); Vila Cortês do Mondego (262 ha, 59 %); Sobral da Serra (233 ha, 21 %); Porto da Carne (80 ha, 41 %); Alvendre (70 ha, 5.5 %); Avelãs de Ambom e Rocamondo (69 ha, 5.1 %); União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz (56 ha, 3.4 %); Cavadoude (40 ha, 6.0 %); Aldeia Viçosa (5 ha, 0.7 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Lajeosa do Mondego 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 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.

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 · 2017-08-23 → 2017-08-24

Celorico da Beira fire, 23 August 2017 Lajeosa do Mondego, Vila Cortês do Mondego, Sobral da Serra

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2017, 02:50 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2017 in Lajeosa do Mondego, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,109 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2017 at 14:31 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2017.

Number 50 in Portugal in 2017, of 211.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Guarda · 2016 Guarda · 2025 Guarda · 2017 Guarda · 2026

Burnt area: 1,109ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 23 Aug 2017 – 24 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 9; freguesias
Started on: 23 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 12; in a single hotspot: 195 MW
Danger at start: 58; Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power: 512MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug24 Aug

Play back 24 Aug 2017

How it evolved, day by day

23 Aug 24 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

47km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 27 Aug.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 75 ha in 2016.

75 ha Guarda fire, July 2016 284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 0.7% of the area of London (11 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Lajeosa do Mondego 627 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started

294 ha reached on 23 Aug

23 %
Vila Cortês do Mondego 283 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

262 ha

59 %
Sobral da Serra 213 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

233 ha

21 %
Porto da Carne 338 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre

80 ha

41 %
Alvendre 186 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre

70 ha reached on 24 Aug

5.5 %
Avelãs de Ambom e Rocamondo 154 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the centre

69 ha

5.1 %
União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz 242 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the centre

56 ha

3.4 %
Cavadoude 243 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the centre

40 ha reached on 24 Aug

6.0 %
Aldeia Viçosa 267 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the centre

5 ha

0.7 %

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 land56 %
Agricultural areas23 %
Scrub and transitional woodland19 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 55 %

LIC Serra da Estrela PTCON0014

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015

Built-up area7.6 ha

Residents≈ 60

Inside the perimeter there were about 7.6 hectares of built-up land and about 60 residents (GHSL 2015, 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 23 August 2017 and burned 958 ha (the satellite measured 1,109 ha).

Celorico da Beira Lajeosa do Mondego 23 August 2017 · 14:31 958 ha · extinguished on 24 August 2017 · cause: negligence

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)
23 Aug	34.5 °C	22 %	47 km/h	0.3 mm	Extreme 58
24 Aug	28.8 °C	26 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
25 Aug after	30.3 °C	16 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
26 Aug after	31.3 °C	24 %	54 km/h	0.9 mm	Very high 44
27 Aug after	27.8 °C	37 %	51 km/h	1.7 mm	High 23

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Aug 2017

After · 31 Aug 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 26 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1036 µg/m³

WHO 15

21222324252627

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 · 12Every 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 Celorico da Beira fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2017 and 24 August 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2017 at 14:31 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,109 hectares (11.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 9 municipalities: Lajeosa do Mondego (294 ha, 23 %); Vila Cortês do Mondego (262 ha, 59 %); Sobral da Serra (233 ha, 21 %); Porto da Carne (80 ha, 41 %); Alvendre (70 ha, 5.5 %); Avelãs de Ambom e Rocamondo (69 ha, 5.1 %); União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz (56 ha, 3.4 %); Cavadoude (40 ha, 6.0 %); Aldeia Viçosa (5 ha, 0.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Lajeosa do Mondego 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 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
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.

RSS Changes to this page

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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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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 12 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 958 official ha against 1,109 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 2015, 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