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Murça fire, July 2022 Jou, Tresminas, Carrazedo de Montenegro e Curros

Out · last detection 21 Jul 2022, 14:13 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2022 in Jou, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 7,641 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 12 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 July 2022 at 16:35 and declared extinguished on 21 July 2022.

Number 3 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Burnt area
7,641ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
17 Jul 2022 – 21 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
12
freguesias
Started on
17 Jul
2022
Heat detections
220
in a single hotspot: 289 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
10.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul21 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

18192021

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
60km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 97 ha in 2017, 3 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Jou 535 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    2,050 ha reached on 18 Jul
    55 %
  2. Tresminas 341 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town where it started
    1,658 ha reached on 18 Jul
    30 %
  3. Carrazedo de Montenegro e Curros 1,643 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,575 ha reached on 19 Jul
    32 %
  4. Valongo de Milhais 265 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,298 ha reached on 18 Jul
    58 %
  5. União das Freguesias de Carva e Vilares 432 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town
    473 ha reached on 18 Jul
    16 %
  6. Alfarela de Jales 357 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    169 ha reached on 18 Jul
    12 %
  7. Murça 1,964 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    155 ha reached on 19 Jul
    11 %
  8. Fiolhoso 416 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    122 ha reached on 20 Jul
    7.4 %
  9. Canaveses 170 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the town
    101 ha
    8.0 %
  10. Santa Maria de Emeres 311 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town
    25 ha
    1.5 %
  11. Noura e Palheiros 812 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the town
    13 ha reached on 19 Jul
    0.3 %
  12. Vales 191 inhabitants · 5.0 km from the town
    5 ha
    0.2 %

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 woodland51 %
  • Agricultural areas23 %
  • Other natural land21 %
  • Coniferous forest4.9 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 17 July 2022 and burned 7,186 ha (the satellite measured 7,641 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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 2 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Fogo de Murça · incêndio de Cortinhas (Murça)
Official area reported: 7,184 ha (the satellite measured 7,641 ha)
Declared extinguished: 21 July 2022

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
17 Jul 39.7 °C 12 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Jul 32.8 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jul 25.6 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Jul 32.6 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul 35.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Jul after 33.2 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jul after 34.5 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jul after 31.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Jul after 31.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul after 30.4 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jul after 30.9 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jul after 30.1 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Jul after 31.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jul after 34.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jul after 37.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jul 2022
After · 28 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 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1046 µg/m³
15161718192021222324
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 · 220Every 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 Murça fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 17 July 2022 and 21 July 2022: 5 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 July 2022 at 16:35 and declared extinguished on 21 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 7,641 hectares (76.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 12 municipalities: Jou (2,050 ha, 55 %); Tresminas (1,658 ha, 30 %); Carrazedo de Montenegro e Curros (1,575 ha, 32 %); Valongo de Milhais (1,298 ha, 58 %); União das Freguesias de Carva e Vilares (473 ha, 16 %); Alfarela de Jales (169 ha, 12 %); Murça (155 ha, 11 %); Fiolhoso (122 ha, 7.4 %); Canaveses (101 ha, 8.0 %); Santa Maria de Emeres (25 ha, 1.5 %); Noura e Palheiros (13 ha, 0.3 %); Vales (5 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Carrazedo de Montenegro e Curros. 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 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
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.