How long did the Monção fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2022 and 24 August 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 August 2022 at 15:38 and declared extinguished on 22 August 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 372 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 6 municipalities: Lara (196 ha, 40 %); Pias (127 ha, 11 %); Pinheiros (25 ha, 11 %); Friestas (17 ha, 4.2 %); Troporiz e Lapela (7 ha, 1.8 %); Gondomil e Safins (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Lara. 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 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-08-21 → 2022-08-24

Monção fire, August 2022 Lara, Pias, Pinheiros

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2022, 14:14 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2022 in Lara, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 372 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 August 2022 at 15:38 and declared extinguished on 22 August 2022.

It is the 4th largest in Monção since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 36 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 372ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 21 Aug 2022 – 24 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit: 6; freguesias
Started on: 21 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 23; in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 156MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

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

40km/h · peak gust

47%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2020.

1 ha Valença fire, September 2020 494 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Lara 255 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town where it started

196 ha reached on 22 Aug

40 %
Pias 0.6 km from the town

127 ha reached on 22 Aug

11 %
Pinheiros 319 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town

25 ha reached on 22 Aug

11 %
Friestas 513 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town

17 ha

4.2 %
Troporiz e Lapela 454 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town

7 ha

1.8 %
Gondomil e Safins 418 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

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 woodland94 %
Agricultural areas4.8 %
Coniferous forest1.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 21 August 2022 and burned 385 ha (the satellite measured 372 ha).

Monção Lapela 21 August 2022 · 15:38 385 ha · extinguished on 22 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)
21 Aug	27.1 °C	48 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
22 Aug	31.4 °C	50 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
23 Aug	32.6 °C	47 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
24 Aug	26.2 °C	68 %	30 km/h	2.1 mm	Low 6
25 Aug after	30.1 °C	51 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
26 Aug after	31.4 °C	48 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
27 Aug after	28.4 °C	57 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
28 Aug after	27.4 °C	56 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
29 Aug after	25.7 °C	60 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
30 Aug after	24.3 °C	56 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
31 Aug after	24.3 °C	60 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
1 Sept after	23.2 °C	71 %	34 km/h	0.7 mm	Low 10
2 Sept after	23.7 °C	63 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 13
3 Sept after	23.2 °C	50 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 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 27 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

PM1021 µg/m³

Optical depth0.35

192021222324252627

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 · 23Every 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 Monção fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2022 and 24 August 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 August 2022 at 15:38 and declared extinguished on 22 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 372 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 6 municipalities: Lara (196 ha, 40 %); Pias (127 ha, 11 %); Pinheiros (25 ha, 11 %); Friestas (17 ha, 4.2 %); Troporiz e Lapela (7 ha, 1.8 %); Gondomil e Safins (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Lara. 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 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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