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Fundão fire, July 2019 Pero Viseu, Capinha

Out · last measured on 27 Jul 2019

The fire started on 27 July 2019 in Pero Viseu, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 273 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 22 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.

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
273ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
27 Jul 2019 – 27 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
27 Jul
2019
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

23°high
34km/h · peak gust
55%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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

  1. Pero Viseu 644 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town where it started
    175 ha
    9.0 %
  2. Capinha 411 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town
    99 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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland92 %
  • Agricultural areas8.4 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 26 July 2019 and burned 344 ha (the satellite measured 273 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
27 Jul 23.2 °C 55 % 34 km/h 1.7 mm Low 8
28 Jul after 27.3 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Jul after 23.9 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Jul after 26.5 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Jul after 29.2 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Aug after 28.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Aug after 31.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Aug after 31.1 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Aug after 29.0 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Aug after 30.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Aug after 28.5 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jul 2019
After · 3 Aug 2019

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 27 July 2019 the air beside the fire reached 10 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak10 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1023 µg/m³
252627282930
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 Fundão fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 27 July 2019 and 27 July 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 273 hectares (2.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pero Viseu (175 ha, 9.0 %); Capinha (99 ha, 2.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Pero Viseu. 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 23.2 °C, humidity dropped to 55 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, 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.

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.