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Guarda fire, August 2017 Gonçalo, Vela, Aldeia do Bispo

Out · last detection 28 Aug 2017, 01:34 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2017 in Vela, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 4,088 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 8 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Guarda since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 20 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
4,088ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
23 Aug 2017 – 28 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
8
freguesias
Started on
23 Aug
2017
Heat detections
182
in a single hotspot: 731 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
13.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug28 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

23242528

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
58km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 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. Gonçalo 960 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    1,090 ha reached on 24 Aug
    40 %
  2. Vela 423 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    764 ha reached on 24 Aug
    36 %
  3. Aldeia do Bispo 0.0 km from the town
    763 ha reached on 24 Aug
    58 %
  4. Vale de Estrela 355 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town
    710 ha reached on 24 Aug
    51 %
  5. Ramela 181 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    476 ha reached on 25 Aug
    47 %
  6. Fernão Joanes 186 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town where it started
    221 ha reached on 23 Aug
    8.8 %
  7. Famalicão 2.0 km from the town
    59 ha
    3.7 %
  8. Benespera 281 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town
    10 ha
    0.5 %

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

  • Other natural land48 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland33 %
  • Agricultural areas18 %
  • Mixed forest1.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 3,239 ha (the satellite measured 4,088 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)
23 Aug 33.8 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Aug 28.8 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Aug 29.4 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug 29.6 °C 23 % 58 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 49
27 Aug 25.7 °C 30 % 56 km/h 1.8 mm High 22
28 Aug 22.2 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 19
29 Aug after 22.1 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 19
30 Aug after 23.7 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 Aug after 25.3 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Sept after 25.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept after 28.0 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Sept after 29.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept after 26.9 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept after 29.9 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept after 30.3 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Sept after 29.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2017
After · 4 Sept 2017

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 24 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak49 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1054 µg/m³
2122232425262728293031
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 · 182Every 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 Guarda fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2017 and 28 August 2017: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 4,088 hectares (40.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 8 municipalities: Gonçalo (1,090 ha, 40 %); Vela (764 ha, 36 %); Aldeia do Bispo (763 ha, 58 %); Vale de Estrela (710 ha, 51 %); Ramela (476 ha, 47 %); Fernão Joanes (221 ha, 8.8 %); Famalicão (59 ha, 3.7 %); Benespera (10 ha, 0.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Aldeia do Bispo. 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 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very 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

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.