Burned area
satellite only156ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
PT · Portugal ·
Formariz e Ferreira fire, March 2021 Formariz e Ferreira, Cerdal
Out · last detection 17 Mar 2021, 14:19 UTC
The fire started on 17 March 2021 in Formariz e Ferreira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 156 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 freguesias.
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.
The power measured by the satellite is low (5.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only1day
17 Mar 2021 to 17 Mar 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 17 Mar 2021, 14:19 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only17 Mar 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 17 Mar 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only3
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 5 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 17 Mar 2021 – 17 Mar 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only15MW
Total radiative power on 17 March 2021; hotspots that day: 3.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 17 Mar 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model6.2FWI · low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 17 Mar 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model20.2°C · 36% RH
High of 20.2 °C and minimum humidity of 36% on 17 March 2021; gusts of 35 km/h on 17 March 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 17 Mar 2021 – 17 Mar 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 156 ha
- Dates
- 17 Mar 2021 – 17 Mar 2021
- Name
- Formariz e Ferreira
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/formariz-e-ferreira-2021-03?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire formariz-e-ferreira-2021-03.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-03-17 | 3 | 15 | 20.2 | 4.8 | 36 | 12.3 | 34.9 | 0 | 6.2 | bajo | 1 |
| 2021-03-18 | 0 | 0 | 14.3 | 4.1 | 42 | 16.4 | 46.1 | 0 | 7.9 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-19 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 2.3 | 55 | 24.5 | 64.4 | 0 | 10.2 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-20 | 0 | 0 | 13.1 | 1.9 | 41 | 15.6 | 45 | 0 | 7 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-21 | 0 | 0 | 13.3 | -0.9 | 40 | 10 | 25.9 | 0 | 4.8 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-22 | 0 | 0 | 15.5 | -0.8 | 44 | 9 | 20.2 | 0 | 5.1 | muy_bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-23 | 0 | 0 | 14.1 | 2.3 | 57 | 8.6 | 24.8 | 0 | 5.7 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-24 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2.3 | 53 | 9.7 | 27 | 0 | 5.9 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-25 | 0 | 0 | 13.9 | 1.7 | 54 | 11.3 | 31.7 | 0 | 5.8 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-26 | 0 | 0 | 11.6 | 3.8 | 63 | 12.7 | 31.7 | 0 | 5.9 | bajo | 0 |
| 2021-03-27 | 0 | 0 | 15.8 | 0.4 | 49 | 8.4 | 22.7 | 0 | 4.3 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 156ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 17 Mar 2021 – 17 Mar 2021
- Freguesias hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 17 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 3
- in a single hotspot: 5 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 15MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
17 Mar17 Mar
How it evolved, day by day
17 Mar 2021 · 15 MW · 3
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
20°high
35km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 65 ha in 2016.
What happened to each freguesia
-
131 ha reached on 17 Mar6.7 %
-
Cerdal 1,550 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the centre25 ha1.3 %
Burnt area inside each freguesia, 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 land95 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland5.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar | 20.2 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 18 Mar after | 14.3 °C | 42 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 19 Mar after | 12.0 °C | 55 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 20 Mar after | 13.1 °C | 41 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 21 Mar after | 13.3 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 22 Mar after | 15.5 °C | 44 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 23 Mar after | 14.1 °C | 57 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 24 Mar after | 13.0 °C | 53 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 25 Mar after | 13.9 °C | 54 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Mar after | 11.6 °C | 63 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 27 Mar after | 15.8 °C | 49 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 6.2, a minimum humidity of 36% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.
FWI at the start
6.2
Minimum humidity
36 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Formariz e Ferreira fire, March 2021
156 ha
1 day
FWI 6.2
Min. humidity 36 %
Vila Chã (São João Baptista e Santiago) fire, October 2016
154 ha
2 days
FWI 5.7
Min. humidity 34 %
31 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.1 mm on 4 Nov.
Anjos e Vilar do Chão fire, March 2026
168 ha
14 days
FWI 4.2
Min. humidity 35 %
58 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 13.1 mm on 7 Apr.
Cambeses do Rio, Donões e Mourilhe fire, March 2017
156 ha
4 days
FWI 4.5
Min. humidity 35 %
60 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 21 Mar.
Venda Nova e Pondras fire, March 2026
155 ha
5 days
FWI 3.7
Min. humidity 37 %
62 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.6 mm on 6 Apr.
Cervos fire, April 2026
122 ha
5 days
FWI 7.2
Min. humidity 36 %
79 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 6 Apr.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 156 ha
- median area
- 4 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 4.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 23 of 26 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (156 ha against a median of 156 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 2 days.
In 3 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.1 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 23 of 26, with a median of 4.1 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 10 Mar 2021
After · 24 Mar 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 19 March 2021 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1030 µg/m³
WHO 15
15 Mar17 Mar19 Mar
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 · 3Every 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
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 23 km away
- 3,333 haAs NevesOctober 2017 · 1 day · 23 km away
- 2,146 haArbo10 August 2016 · 3 days · 26 km away
- 2,698 haNogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de MurtedaAugust 2016 · 4 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Formariz e Ferreira fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 17 March 2021 and 17 March 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 156 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which freguesias burned?
- The fire entered 2 freguesias: Formariz e Ferreira (131 ha, 6.7 %); Cerdal (25 ha, 1.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 2.5 km of the centre of Cerdal, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 20.2 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 26. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 156 ha; 4 % went past 1,000 ha. In 3 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.1 mm.
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
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
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 With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.
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. Freguesia boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per freguesia is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.