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Mafra fire, July 2022 Venda do Pinheiro e Santo Estêvão das Galés, Malveira e São Miguel de Alcainça, Lousa

Out · last measured on 31 Jul 2022

The fire started on 31 July 2022 in Venda do Pinheiro e Santo Estêvão das Galés, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 287 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 31 July 2022 at 15:08 and declared extinguished on 1 August 2022.

Number 44 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

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 municipality is there.

Burnt area
287ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
31 Jul 2022 – 31 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
31 Jul
2022
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

28°high
30km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 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. Venda do Pinheiro e Santo Estêvão das Galés 10,816 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    156 ha
    5.3 %
  2. Malveira e São Miguel de Alcainça 9,648 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town
    108 ha
    6.4 %
  3. Lousa 3,216 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the town
    24 ha
    1.5 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland62 %
  • Broadleaved forest26 %
  • Other natural land9.3 %
  • Agricultural areas2.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 31 July 2022 and burned 295 ha (the satellite measured 287 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)
31 Jul 27.7 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Aug after 25.9 °C 53 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Aug after 24.0 °C 61 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Aug after 21.9 °C 69 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Aug after 20.8 °C 74 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Aug after 22.1 °C 67 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
6 Aug after 21.0 °C 67 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Aug after 21.4 °C 64 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
8 Aug after 21.8 °C 62 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Aug after 23.5 °C 59 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Aug after 21.9 °C 60 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jul 2022
After · 7 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 1 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak15 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1026 µg/m³
293031123
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 Mafra fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 31 July 2022 and 31 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 31 July 2022 at 15:08 and declared extinguished on 1 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 287 hectares (2.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Venda do Pinheiro e Santo Estêvão das Galés (156 ha, 5.3 %); Malveira e São Miguel de Alcainça (108 ha, 6.4 %); Lousa (24 ha, 1.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Venda do Pinheiro e Santo Estêvão das Galés. 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 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class 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.