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Montalegre fire, 12 October 2017 Reigoso, Paradela, Contim e Fiães, Covelo do Gerês

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2017, 13:35 UTC

The fire started on 12 October 2017 in Reigoso, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 788 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Montalegre since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 70 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
788ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
12 Oct 2017 – 13 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
6
freguesias
Started on
12 Oct
2017
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 90 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
911MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Oct13 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1213

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
37km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.7 mm on 16 Oct.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Reigoso 130 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    288 ha reached on 11 Oct
    17 %
  2. Paradela, Contim e Fiães 245 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town
    232 ha reached on 12 Oct
    7.5 %
  3. Covelo do Gerês 166 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    160 ha reached on 9 Oct
    15 %
  4. Ferral 293 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town where it started
    94 ha reached on 12 Oct
    6.2 %
  5. Vila da Ponte 1.0 km from the town
    14 ha reached on 11 Oct
    1.3 %
  6. Viade de Baixo e Fervidelas 695 inhabitants · 4.8 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

  • Other natural land62 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland31 %
  • Agricultural areas5.6 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.3 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, 5 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 569 ha (the satellite measured 788 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
9 Oct 23.9 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Oct 23.9 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Oct 21.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Oct 23.6 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Oct 22.5 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Oct after 23.5 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Oct after 24.7 °C 28 % 63 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
16 Oct after 18.3 °C 47 % 56 km/h 5.7 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Oct 2017
After · 20 Oct 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 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 205 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 106: 7.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak205 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM10243 µg/m³
78910111213141516
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 · 67Every 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 Montalegre fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 October 2017 and 13 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 788 hectares (7.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Reigoso (288 ha, 17 %); Paradela, Contim e Fiães (232 ha, 7.5 %); Covelo do Gerês (160 ha, 15 %); Ferral (94 ha, 6.2 %); Vila da Ponte (14 ha, 1.3 %); Viade de Baixo e Fervidelas (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of Covelo do Gerês. 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 23.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.