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Parada de Ester e Ester fire, 15 January 2021 Parada de Ester e Ester, Cabril, Tendais

Out · last detection 16 Jan 2021, 13:03 UTC

The fire started on 15 January 2021 in Parada de Ester e Ester, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 296 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

This entry is most likely a pasture burn or a prescribed winter burn in northern Portugal, not a wildfire. In these hills scrub is burnt to renew grazing, and this fire is not in the ICNF register of rural fires. This is our assumption, based on the time of year and the lack of an official record; it is not confirmed. That is why it is left out of the wildfire rankings.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.2 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
296ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
15 Jan 2021 – 16 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
4
freguesias
Started on
15 Jan
2021
Heat detections
17
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
93MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jan16 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

16

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

The weather it burned in

7°high
25km/h · peak gust
57%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 33.7 mm on 20 Jan.

This area had burned before

53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 145 ha in 2016, 14 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Parada de Ester e Ester 744 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town where it started
    157 ha reached on 16 Jan
    3.9 %
  2. Cabril 3.8 km from the town
    135 ha reached on 16 Jan
    6.1 %
  3. Tendais 697 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    2 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.1 %
  4. Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires 517 inhabitants · 6.7 km from the town
    2 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 land100 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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.

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)
15 Jan 6.6 °C 65 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
16 Jan 6.8 °C 57 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
17 Jan after 7.0 °C 53 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
18 Jan after 9.4 °C 56 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
19 Jan after 6.4 °C 68 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
20 Jan after 7.2 °C 81 % 86 km/h 33.7 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jan 2021
After · 23 Jan 2021

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 17 January 2021 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak44 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1066 µg/m³
13141516171819
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 · 17Every 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 Parada de Ester e Ester fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 January 2021 and 16 January 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 296 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Parada de Ester e Ester (157 ha, 3.9 %); Cabril (135 ha, 6.1 %); Tendais (2 ha, 0.1 %); Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires (2 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.2 km of Parada de Ester e Ester. 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 6.8 °C, humidity dropped to 57 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 1, class Very low.
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.

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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.