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Penafiel fire, July 2022 Croca, Penafiel, Vila Boa de Quires e Maureles

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2022, 01:21 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2022 in Penafiel, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 259 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Penafiel since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 52 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.1 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
259ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
14 Jul 2022 – 15 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
14 Jul
2022
Heat detections
7
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
109MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul15 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1415

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
39km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 19 Jul.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 119 ha in 2016, 9 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Croca 1,792 inhabitants · 6.9 km from the town
    149 ha reached on 14 Jul
    23 %
  2. Penafiel 15,677 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town where it started
    72 ha reached on 14 Jul
    3.2 %
  3. Vila Boa de Quires e Maureles 3,461 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town
    38 ha reached on 14 Jul
    2.0 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland92 %
  • Other natural land4.6 %
  • Mixed forest3.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 339 ha (the satellite measured 259 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
14 Jul 34.3 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
15 Jul 30.1 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Jul after 29.5 °C 51 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Jul after 29.4 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
18 Jul after 25.2 °C 52 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
19 Jul after 22.9 °C 57 % 34 km/h 1.3 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2022
After · 22 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.

Detections table · 7Every 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 Penafiel fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 14 July 2022 and 15 July 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 259 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Croca (149 ha, 23 %); Penafiel (72 ha, 3.2 %); Vila Boa de Quires e Maureles (38 ha, 2.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Vila Boa de Quires e Maureles. 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 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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

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.