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Cinfães fire, 19 January 2021 Cinfães, São Cristóvão de Nogueira, Nespereira

Out · last measured on 19 Jan 2021

The fire started on 19 January 2021 in Cinfães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 179 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

This entry is most likely a pasture burn or a prescribed winter burn in northern Portugal, not a wildfire. In these hills scrub is burnt to renew grazing, and this fire is not in the ICNF register of rural fires. This is our assumption, based on the time of year and the lack of an official record; it is not confirmed. That is why it is left out of the wildfire rankings.

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
179ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
19 Jan 2021 – 19 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
19 Jan
2021
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

8°high
55km/h · peak gust
68%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 33.7 mm on 20 Jan.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 177 ha in 2016, 155 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 177 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cinfães 3,080 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town where it started
    116 ha
    4.6 %
  2. São Cristóvão de Nogueira 1,639 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town
    60 ha
    3.3 %
  3. Nespereira 1,695 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town
    3 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Other natural land99 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland0.6 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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.

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)
19 Jan 7.6 °C 68 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
20 Jan after 8.4 °C 82 % 86 km/h 33.7 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jan 2021
After · 26 Jan 2021

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 19 January 2021 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak37 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1052 µg/m³
171819202122
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 Cinfães fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 19 January 2021 and 19 January 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 179 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cinfães (116 ha, 4.6 %); São Cristóvão de Nogueira (60 ha, 3.3 %); Nespereira (3 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.3 km of São Cristóvão de Nogueira. 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 7.6 °C, humidity dropped to 68 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 1, class Very low.
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.