How long did the Guimarães fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 August 2022 to 24 August 2022 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2022 to 24 August 2022. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2022 at 14:43 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 198 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Travassós (85 ha, 11 %); Freitas e Vila Cova (63 ha, 5.4 %); União das Freguesias de Atães e Rendufe e Mesão Frio (50 ha, 4.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 0.8 km of the centre of Freitas e Vila Cova, 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 25.2 °C, humidity dropped to 62 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.

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 · 2022-08-23 → 2022-08-24

Guimarães fire, August 2022 Travassós, Freitas e Vila Cova, União das Freguesias de Atães e Rendufe e Mesão Frio

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2022, 02:12 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2022 in Travassós, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 198 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2022 at 14:43 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2022.

It is the 11th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 69 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Póvoa de Lanhoso · 2016 Celorico de Basto · 2024 Cabeceiras de Basto · 2024 Ponte da Barca · 2025

Burnt area: 198ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 23 Aug 2022 – 24 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 23 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 3; in a single hotspot: 8 MW
Danger at start: 14; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 7MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug24 Aug

Play back 24 Aug 2022

How it evolved, day by day

23 Aug 24 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

25°high

31km/h · peak gust

62%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 86 ha in 2016, 4 ha in 2020, 6 ha in 2021.

45 ha Póvoa de Lanhoso fire, August 2016 223 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Travassós 1,444 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the centre where it started

85 ha reached on 24 Aug

11 %
Freitas e Vila Cova 748 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre

63 ha reached on 24 Aug

5.4 %
União das Freguesias de Atães e Rendufe e Mesão Frio 4,159 inhabitants · 5.9 km from the centre

50 ha reached on 23 Aug

4.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, 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 land46 %
Scrub and transitional woodland35 %
Mixed forest19 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020

Built-up area0.11 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.11 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 23 August 2022 and burned 216 ha (the satellite measured 198 ha).

Guimarães Rendufe 23 August 2022 · 14:43 216 ha · extinguished on 24 August 2022 · cause: arson

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)
24 Aug	25.2 °C	62 %	31 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 14
25 Aug after	30.0 °C	41 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
26 Aug after	29.9 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
27 Aug after	26.7 °C	43 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
28 Aug after	26.4 °C	51 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
29 Aug after	24.6 °C	51 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
30 Aug after	22.8 °C	48 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
31 Aug after	22.8 °C	53 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
1 Sept after	22.2 °C	57 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
2 Sept after	21.5 °C	55 %	34 km/h	0.2 mm	High 21
3 Sept after	21.3 °C	45 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Aug 2022

After · 31 Aug 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 25 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1022 µg/m³

Optical depth0.33

WHO 15

222324252627

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

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Guimarães fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 August 2022 to 24 August 2022 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2022 to 24 August 2022. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2022 at 14:43 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 198 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Travassós (85 ha, 11 %); Freitas e Vila Cova (63 ha, 5.4 %); União das Freguesias de Atães e Rendufe e Mesão Frio (50 ha, 4.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 0.8 km of the centre of Freitas e Vila Cova, 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 25.2 °C, humidity dropped to 62 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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

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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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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 August 2022 to 24 August 2022. 3 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 216 official ha against 198 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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