Palmela fire, July 2022 Palmela, Quinta do Anjo
The fire started on 13 July 2022 in Palmela, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 446 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 12:04 and declared extinguished on 14 July 2022.
Number 33 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 446ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 13 Jul 2022 – 13 Jul 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 7
- in a single hotspot: 225 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 498MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
13 Jul 2022 · 498 MW · 7
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
369 ha reached on 13 Jul4.8 %
-
Quinta do Anjo 14,263 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the centre78 ha1.5 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Agricultural areas69 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland25 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub3.4 %
- Artificial surfaces3.2 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 68 %
- LIC Arrábida / Espichel PTCON0010
Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.
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 412 ha (the satellite measured 446 ha).
- Palmela Palmela 13 July 2022 · 12:04 412 ha · extinguished on 14 July 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 14 Jul after | 29.5 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Jul after | 28.9 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Jul after | 29.8 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 17 Jul after | 26.3 °C | 54 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Jul after | 24.1 °C | 55 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Jul after | 26.8 °C | 47 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Jul after | 30.6 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Jul after | 28.8 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Jul after | 30.1 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Jul after | 30.5 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 14 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 7Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Palmela 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 12:04 and declared extinguished on 14 July 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 446 hectares (4.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Palmela (369 ha, 4.8 %); Quinta do Anjo (78 ha, 1.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Palmela and came within 0.7 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 7 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 412 official ha against 446 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.