Skip to content
worldfires
PT · Portugal · →

Penafiel fire, September 2017 Rio Mau, Sebolido, Canelas

Out · last measured on 3 Sept 2017

The fire started on 3 September 2017 in Rio Mau, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 554 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 September 2017 at 04:40 and declared extinguished on 3 September 2017.

It is the 3th largest in Penafiel since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 88 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
554ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
3 Sept 2017 – 3 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
4
freguesias
Started on
3 Sept
2017
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

25°high
37km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 9 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Rio Mau 1,340 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town where it started
    315 ha
    50 %
  2. Sebolido 823 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    219 ha
    43 %
  3. Canelas 1.5 km from the town
    20 ha
    1.7 %
  4. Capela 964 inhabitants · 2.7 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 land60 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland39 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 2 September 2017 and burned 607 ha (the satellite measured 554 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.

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)
3 Sept 24.9 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Sept after 23.4 °C 66 % 30 km/h 0.9 mm Low 8
5 Sept after 25.3 °C 57 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
6 Sept after 29.7 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
7 Sept after 28.9 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Sept after 23.3 °C 43 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Sept after 18.9 °C 52 % 56 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Aug 2017
After · 10 Sept 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 3 September 2017 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak13 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1019 µg/m³
123456
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Penafiel fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 3 September 2017 and 3 September 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 September 2017 at 04:40 and declared extinguished on 3 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 554 hectares (5.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Rio Mau (315 ha, 50 %); Sebolido (219 ha, 43 %); Canelas (20 ha, 1.7 %); Capela (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Sebolido. 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 24.9 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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
What do you think is wrong?

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.