How long did the Chaves fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 29 August 2022 and 30 August 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 August 2022 at 14:13 and declared extinguished on 30 August 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 478 hectares (4.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ervededo (429 ha, 21 %); Vilarelho Da Raia (45 ha, 2.5 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Ervededo. 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 30 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-08-29 → 2022-08-30

Chaves fire, August 2022 Ervededo, Vilarelho Da Raia

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2022, 02:00 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2022 in Ervededo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 478 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 August 2022 at 14:13 and declared extinguished on 30 August 2022.

It is the 8th largest in Chaves since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 27 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (3.2 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: 478ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 29 Aug 2022 – 30 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 29 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 7; in a single hotspot: 3 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 16MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

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

31km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 5 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Ervededo 595 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town where it started

429 ha reached on 30 Aug

21 %
Vilarelho Da Raia

45 ha

2.5 %

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 areas39 %
Other natural land31 %
Scrub and transitional woodland27 %
Broadleaved forest2.7 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 29 August 2022 and burned 535 ha (the satellite measured 478 ha).

Chaves Ervededo 29 August 2022 · 14:13 535 ha · extinguished on 30 August 2022 · cause: rekindling

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)
29 Aug	28.5 °C	38 %	31 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 18
30 Aug	27.4 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
31 Aug after	25.7 °C	38 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
1 Sept after	25.2 °C	41 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
2 Sept after	22.9 °C	45 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
3 Sept after	24.1 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
4 Sept after	22.8 °C	42 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
5 Sept after	21.2 °C	65 %	53 km/h	2.5 mm	Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Aug 2022

After · 6 Sept 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 29 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1028 µg/m³

Optical depth0.29

WHO 15

272829303112

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 · 7Every 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 Chaves fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 29 August 2022 and 30 August 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 August 2022 at 14:13 and declared extinguished on 30 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 478 hectares (4.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ervededo (429 ha, 21 %); Vilarelho Da Raia (45 ha, 2.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Ervededo. 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 30 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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

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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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.

Where it burned