How long did the Eiriz fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2017 and 13 August 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 240 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Eiriz (172 ha, 28 %); Sanfins Lamoso Codessos (56 ha, 5.5 %); Monte Córdova (12 ha, 0.7 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Sanfins Lamoso Codessos. 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 31 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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 · 2017-08-12 → 2017-08-13

Eiriz fire, August 2017 Eiriz, Sanfins Lamoso Codessos, Monte Córdova

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2017, 14:19 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2017 in Eiriz, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 240 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 139 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (6.8 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: 240ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 12 Aug 2017 – 13 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 12 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 1; in a single hotspot: 7 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 7MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug13 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

31%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 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

Eiriz 2,181 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town where it started

172 ha reached on 13 Aug

28 %
Sanfins Lamoso Codessos 3,139 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town

56 ha

5.5 %
Monte Córdova 3,850 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the town

12 ha

0.7 %

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 woodland46 %
Broadleaved forest28 %
Mixed forest11 %
Agricultural areas10 %
Artificial surfaces4.6 %

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	Danger (FWI)
12 Aug	28.5 °C	31 %	31 km/h	High 26
13 Aug	28.0 °C	37 %	26 km/h	High 25
14 Aug after	21.4 °C	63 %	33 km/h	Moderate 17
15 Aug after	21.9 °C	58 %	37 km/h	Moderate 19
16 Aug after	23.1 °C	48 %	38 km/h	Moderate 20
17 Aug after	24.7 °C	51 %	39 km/h	Moderate 20
18 Aug after	23.6 °C	62 %	38 km/h	Moderate 20
19 Aug after	27.3 °C	45 %	33 km/h	High 22
20 Aug after	31.6 °C	29 %	40 km/h	High 34
21 Aug after	28.5 °C	36 %	33 km/h	High 31
22 Aug after	24.2 °C	57 %	36 km/h	High 22
23 Aug after	22.9 °C	61 %	32 km/h	Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Aug 2017

After · 20 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 13 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1031 µg/m³

WHO 15

10111213141516

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 · 1Every 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 Eiriz fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2017 and 13 August 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 240 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Eiriz (172 ha, 28 %); Sanfins Lamoso Codessos (56 ha, 5.5 %); Monte Córdova (12 ha, 0.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Sanfins Lamoso Codessos. 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 31 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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