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PT · Portugal ·

Lamelas e Guimarei fire, July 2022 Lamelas e Guimarei, Covelas

Out · last measured on 23 Jul 2022

The fire started on 23 July 2022 in Lamelas e Guimarei, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 171 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 freguesias.

Number 76 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ribeira do Neiva · 2016Crecente · 2024Aguiar de Sousa · 2024Celorico de Basto · 2024

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 freguesia is there.

Burnt area
171ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
23 Jul 2022 – 23 Jul 2022
Freguesias hit
2
freguesias
Started on
23 Jul
2022
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

28°high
26km/h · peak gust
53%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19 ha in 2016, 1 ha in 2017.

What happened to each freguesia

  1. Lamelas e Guimarei 1,567 inhabitants where it started
    151 ha
    12 %
  2. Covelas 1,463 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the centre
    20 ha
    1.3 %

Burnt area inside each freguesia, 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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland87 %
  • Broadleaved forest13 %
  • Agricultural areas0.6 %

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

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 Jul 27.8 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
24 Jul after 24.3 °C 60 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
25 Jul after 26.3 °C 54 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Jul after 25.1 °C 56 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Jul after 24.3 °C 55 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Jul after 23.3 °C 66 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
29 Jul after 26.3 °C 57 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Jul after 32.4 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
31 Jul after 33.9 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Aug after 31.6 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Aug after 26.3 °C 63 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 15.1, a minimum humidity of 53% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.

FWI at the start 15.1
Minimum humidity 53 %
Days without rain 3
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Ribeira do Neiva fire, August 2016
146 ha 9 days FWI 14.7 Min. humidity 53 % 47 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 46.3 mm on 13 Sept.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
174 ha
median area
5 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 17 of 22 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (171 ha against a median of 174 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 2 days.

In 5 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.1 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
26km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 23 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 22, with a median of 4.1 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2022
After · 30 Jul 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 21 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1030 µg/m³
21 Jul23 Jul25 Jul
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 Lamelas e Guimarei fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2022 and 23 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 171 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which freguesias burned?
The fire entered 2 freguesias: Lamelas e Guimarei (151 ha, 12 %); Covelas (20 ha, 1.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 2.5 km of the centre of Covelas, 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 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 53 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 174 ha; 5 % went past 1,000 ha. In 5 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.1 mm.

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

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 With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

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. Freguesia boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per freguesia is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.