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Miranda do Douro fire, June 2017 Miranda do Douro, Ifanes e Paradela

Out · last detection 22 Jun 2017, 13:53 UTC

The fire started on 20 June 2017 in Miranda do Douro, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 248 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 June 2017 at 23:12 and declared extinguished on 21 June 2017.

Number 137 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
248ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
20 Jun 2017 – 22 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
20 Jun
2017
Heat detections
8
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
118MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jun22 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

2122

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
37km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.3 mm on 25 Jun.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Miranda do Douro 2,064 inhabitants · 6.1 km from the town where it started
    164 ha reached on 21 Jun
    4.6 %
  2. Ifanes e Paradela 233 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the town
    82 ha reached on 22 Jun
    1.8 %

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 woodland57 %
  • Agricultural areas41 %
  • Broadleaved forest2.4 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 94 %

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 20 June 2017 and burned 245 ha (the satellite measured 248 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)
20 Jun 33.5 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jun 34.9 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Jun 32.8 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Jun after 30.4 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jun after 28.9 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Jun after 26.7 °C 39 % 43 km/h 8.3 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jun 2017
After · 29 Jun 2017

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 22 June 2017 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1033 µg/m³
1819202122232425
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 · 8Every 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 Miranda do Douro fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 20 June 2017 and 22 June 2017: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 20 June 2017 at 23:12 and declared extinguished on 21 June 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 248 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Miranda do Douro (164 ha, 4.6 %); Ifanes e Paradela (82 ha, 1.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.2 km of Ifanes e Paradela. 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 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

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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.