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Guarda fire, August 2022 Aldeia Viçosa, Vila Cortês do Mondego, Mizarela, Pêro Soares e Vila Soeiro

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2022, 02:00 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2022 in Aldeia Viçosa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 790 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2022 at 15:36 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2022.

It is the 5th largest in Guarda since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 16 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.3 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
790ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
14 Aug 2022 – 14 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
5
freguesias
Started on
14 Aug
2022
Heat detections
17
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
62MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

14

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
42km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 255 ha in 2016, 172 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 387 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Aldeia Viçosa 267 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town where it started
    420 ha
    57 %
  2. Vila Cortês do Mondego 283 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    216 ha reached on 14 Aug
    49 %
  3. Mizarela, Pêro Soares e Vila Soeiro 200 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    150 ha reached on 14 Aug
    10 %
  4. União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz 242 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town
    4 ha
    0.2 %
  5. Lajeosa do Mondego 627 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    2 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.2 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland51 %
  • Other natural land34 %
  • Agricultural areas7.5 %
  • Mixed forest7.3 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 13 August 2022 and burned 786 ha (the satellite measured 790 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)
14 Aug 26.3 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Aug after 27.2 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Aug after 22.6 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
17 Aug after 24.7 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug after 27.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Aug after 31.5 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Aug after 33.5 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Aug after 31.7 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Aug after 33.8 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Aug after 35.6 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Aug after 30.3 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2022
After · 21 Aug 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 12 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1042 µg/m³
Optical depth0.65
121314151617
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 · 17Every 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 14 August 2022 and 14 August 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2022 at 15:36 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 790 hectares (7.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Aldeia Viçosa (420 ha, 57 %); Vila Cortês do Mondego (216 ha, 49 %); Mizarela, Pêro Soares e Vila Soeiro (150 ha, 10 %); União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz (4 ha, 0.2 %); Lajeosa do Mondego (2 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Vila Cortês do Mondego. 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 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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
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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.