How long did the Murça fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 27 May 2022 and 28 May 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 26 May 2022 at 23:21 and declared extinguished on 28 May 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 240 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vila Verde (143 ha, 3.4 %); União das Freguesias de Carva e Vilares (97 ha, 3.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Vila Verde. 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 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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 · 2022-05-27 → 2022-05-28

Murça fire, May 2022 Vila Verde, União das Freguesias de Carva e Vilares

Out · last detection 28 May 2022, 03:01 UTC

The fire started on 27 May 2022 in Vila Verde, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 240 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 26 May 2022 at 23:21 and declared extinguished on 28 May 2022.

It is the 8th largest in Alijó since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 56 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.8 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: 240ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 27 May 2022 – 28 May 2022
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 27 May; 2022
Heat detections: 16; in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start: 27; High · FWI index
Energy released: 43MW; sum of detected power

Play back 28 May 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 May28 May

How it evolved, day by day

2728

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

The weather it burned in

29°high

36km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 29 May.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12 ha in 2018.

12 ha Alijó fire, September 2018 542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Vila Verde 1.7 km from the town

143 ha reached on 27 May

3.4 %
União das Freguesias de Carva e Vilares 432 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town where it started

97 ha reached on 27 May

3.3 %

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 land93 %
Scrub and transitional woodland6.7 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 26 May 2022 and burned 252 ha (the satellite measured 240 ha).

Murça Carva 26 May 2022 · 23:21 252 ha · extinguished on 28 May 2022 · cause: negligence

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)
27 May	28.6 °C	11 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
28 May	29.1 °C	14 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
29 May after	25.3 °C	30 %	40 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 20 May 2022

After · 4 Jun 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 29 May 2022 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1020 µg/m³

25262728293031

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 · 16Every 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 Murça fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 27 May 2022 and 28 May 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 26 May 2022 at 23:21 and declared extinguished on 28 May 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 240 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vila Verde (143 ha, 3.4 %); União das Freguesias de Carva e Vilares (97 ha, 3.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Vila Verde. 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 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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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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.

Where it burned