How long did the Guarda fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 7 July 2022 and 10 July 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2022 at 14:11 and declared extinguished on 8 July 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 749 hectares (7.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Maçainhas (356 ha, 19 %); União das Freguesias de Belmonte e Colmeal da Torre (184 ha, 4.8 %); Vela (169 ha, 8.0 %); Benespera (41 ha, 2.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of Maçainhas. 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 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-07-07 → 2022-07-10

Guarda fire, 7 July 2022 Maçainhas, União das Freguesias de Belmonte e Colmeal da Torre, Vela

Out · last detection 8 Jul 2022, 13:16 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2022 in Maçainhas, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 749 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2022 at 14:11 and declared extinguished on 8 July 2022.

Number 17 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Burnt area: 749ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 7 Jul 2022 – 10 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit: 4; freguesias
Started on: 7 Jul; 2022
Heat detections: 54; in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 1.1GW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul10 Jul

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

37°high

36km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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

Maçainhas 312 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town

356 ha reached on 8 Jul

19 %
União das Freguesias de Belmonte e Colmeal da Torre 3,183 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town where it started

184 ha reached on 8 Jul

4.8 %
Vela 423 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town

169 ha reached on 8 Jul

8.0 %
Benespera 281 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town

41 ha

2.3 %

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 woodland53 %
Mixed forest25 %
Agricultural areas11 %
Broadleaved forest7.3 %
Other natural land3.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 7 July 2022 and burned 740 ha (the satellite measured 749 ha).

Guarda Benespera 7 July 2022 · 14:11 740 ha · extinguished on 8 July 2022 · cause: negligence

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)
7 Jul	32.3 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
8 Jul	34.4 °C	13 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
9 Jul	36.2 °C	12 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Jul	36.9 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
11 Jul after	36.2 °C	19 %	28 km/h	0.8 mm	High 36
12 Jul after	38.3 °C	13 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
13 Jul after	38.8 °C	14 %	26 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 44
14 Jul after	40.7 °C	14 %	40 km/h	0.6 mm	Extreme 57
15 Jul after	37.7 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
16 Jul after	36.4 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 44
17 Jul after	37.3 °C	21 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
18 Jul after	31.5 °C	28 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
19 Jul after	28.0 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
20 Jul after	33.9 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 30 Jun 2022

After · 17 Jul 2022

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 15 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1037 µg/m³

WHO 15

567891011121314151617

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 · 54Every 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 Guarda fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 7 July 2022 and 10 July 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2022 at 14:11 and declared extinguished on 8 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 749 hectares (7.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Maçainhas (356 ha, 19 %); União das Freguesias de Belmonte e Colmeal da Torre (184 ha, 4.8 %); Vela (169 ha, 8.0 %); Benespera (41 ha, 2.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of Maçainhas. 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 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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

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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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