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Monção fire, July 2022 Portela, Abedim, Portela e Extremo

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2022, 13:23 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2022 in Portela, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 165 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 01:38 and declared extinguished on 13 July 2022.

It is the 8th largest in Monção since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 79 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.0 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: Monção · 2017Arcos de Valdevez · 2016As Neves · 2017Cabração e Moreira do Lima · 2016

Burnt area
165ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
13 Jul 2022 – 13 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
13 Jul
2022
Heat detections
11
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
92MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul13 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

13 Jul 2022 · 92 MW · 11

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
34km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 19 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Portela 202 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town where it started
    124 ha reached on 13 Jul
    15 %
  2. Abedim 191 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    26 ha reached on 13 Jul
    3.4 %
  3. Portela e Extremo 323 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town
    15 ha reached on 13 Jul
    1.3 %

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

  • Other natural land82 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland13 %
  • Mixed forest3.6 %
  • Agricultural areas1.8 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 13 July 2022 and burned 175 ha (the satellite measured 165 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)
13 Jul 32.7 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Jul after 32.7 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 21
15 Jul after 26.8 °C 58 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
16 Jul after 26.7 °C 60 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
17 Jul after 26.3 °C 60 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
18 Jul after 23.3 °C 58 % 53 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 13
19 Jul after 19.6 °C 69 % 41 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jul 2022
After · 20 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 16 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak37 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1049 µg/m³
111213141516
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 · 11Every 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 Monção fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 July 2022 and 13 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 01:38 and declared extinguished on 13 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 165 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Portela (124 ha, 15 %); Abedim (26 ha, 3.4 %); Portela e Extremo (15 ha, 1.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.0 km of Portela. 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 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, 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

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
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. 11 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 175 official ha against 165 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • 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. 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.