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Fafe fire, May 2022 Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova, São Gens

Out · last detection 9 May 2022, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2022 in Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 171 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 8 May 2022 at 16:13 and declared extinguished on 9 May 2022.

It is the 14th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 76 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.3 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
171ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
8 May 2022 – 9 May 2022
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
8 May
2022
Heat detections
16
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index
Energy released
150MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 May 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May9 May

How it evolved, day by day

89

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
27km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.2 mm on 14 May.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 53 ha in 2016, 5 ha in 2017, 1 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova 1,656 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town where it started
    154 ha reached on 8 May
    5.5 %
  2. São Gens 1,643 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    17 ha reached on 9 May
    1.2 %

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 land71 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland26 %
  • Mixed forest3.5 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 8 May 2022 and burned 187 ha (the satellite measured 171 ha).

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)
8 May 24.4 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 May 25.0 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
10 May after 24.0 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
11 May after 22.2 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
12 May after 23.2 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
13 May after 24.0 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
14 May after 26.3 °C 41 % 39 km/h 7.2 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 May 2022
After · 16 May 2022

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 11 May 2022 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1029 µg/m³
6789101112
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 · 16Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Fafe fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 8 May 2022 and 9 May 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 8 May 2022 at 16:13 and declared extinguished on 9 May 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 171 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova (154 ha, 5.5 %); São Gens (17 ha, 1.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.6 km of Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova. 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 25.0 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, class 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.

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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.