Skip to content
worldfires
en
PT · Portugal · →

Penalva do Castelo fire, July 2019 São João da Fresta, União das Freguesias de Antas e Matela

Out · last measured on 23 Jul 2019

The fire started on 23 July 2019 in São João da Fresta, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 105 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 22 July 2019 at 17:26 and declared extinguished on 23 July 2019.

It is the 11th largest in Mangualde since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 47 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Penalva do Castelo · 2024Seia · 2017Serra da Estrela · 2022Guarda · 2025

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
105ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
23 Jul 2019 – 23 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
23 Jul
2019
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

31°high
41km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 27 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. São João da Fresta 169 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre where it started
    56 ha
    7.4 %
  2. União das Freguesias de Antas e Matela 403 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the centre
    49 ha
    2.7 %

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

  • Other natural land81 %
  • Agricultural areas14 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland4.7 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 22 July 2019 and burned 124 ha (the satellite measured 105 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)
23 Jul 31.2 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
24 Jul after 32.3 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Jul after 26.5 °C 46 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Jul after 24.0 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Jul after 23.8 °C 52 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2019
After · 30 Jul 2019

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 23 July 2019 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1034 µg/m³
212223242526
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 Penalva do Castelo fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2019 and 23 July 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 22 July 2019 at 17:26 and declared extinguished on 23 July 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 105 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: São João da Fresta (56 ha, 7.4 %); União das Freguesias de Antas e Matela (49 ha, 2.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in São João da Fresta and came within 0.9 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 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 124 official ha against 105 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.