How long did the Ponte de Lima fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 14 July 2020 and 15 July 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 14 July 2020 at 20:57 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 132 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Fornelos e Queijada (101 ha, 7.7 %); Anais (32 ha, 3.9 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Fornelos e Queijada and came within 1.2 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2020-07-14 → 2020-07-15

Ponte de Lima fire, 14 July 2020 Fornelos e Queijada, Anais

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2020, 02:49 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2020 in Fornelos e Queijada, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 132 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 14 July 2020 at 20:57 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2020.

It is the 10th largest in Ponte de Lima since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 60 in Portugal in 2020, of 67.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cabração e Moreira do Lima · 2016 Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda · 2016 Ponte da Barca · 2025 Arcos de Valdevez · 2016

Burnt area: 132ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 14 Jul 2020 – 15 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 14 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 10; in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start: 25; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 79MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul15 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

15 Jul 2020 · 79 MW · 10

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

50km/h · peak gust

32%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 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

Fornelos e Queijada 1,869 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre where it started

101 ha reached on 15 Jul

7.7 %
Anais 1,027 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the centre

32 ha reached on 15 Jul

3.9 %

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

Broadleaved forest91 %
Mixed forest3.9 %
Other natural land3.1 %
Agricultural areas2.3 %

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

Official record

Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 144 ha (the satellite measured 132 ha).

ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.

When each one burned

1 7 ha 2 136 ha

12 Jul15 Jul

arson

1 Vila Verde Rio Mau 12 July 2020 · 01:08 7 ha · extinguished on 12 July 2020 · cause: arson
2 Ponte de Lima Fornelos 14 July 2020 · 20:57 136 ha · extinguished on 15 July 2020 · cause: arson

Total according to ICNF: 144 ha, 109 % of the 132 ha in the satellite perimeter.

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	27.7 °C	36 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
15 Jul	31.1 °C	32 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Jul after	33.3 °C	33 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
17 Jul after	34.3 °C	26 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
18 Jul after	32.6 °C	30 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
19 Jul after	25.3 °C	59 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
20 Jul after	29.2 °C	48 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
21 Jul after	31.5 °C	38 %	24 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
22 Jul after	30.0 °C	45 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
23 Jul after	28.5 °C	49 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
24 Jul after	28.1 °C	37 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
25 Jul after	26.5 °C	46 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Jul 2020

After · 22 Jul 2020

Before After

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 12 July 2020 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1019 µg/m³

12131415161718

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 · 10Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ponte de Lima fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 14 July 2020 and 15 July 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 14 July 2020 at 20:57 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 132 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Fornelos e Queijada (101 ha, 7.7 %); Anais (32 ha, 3.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Fornelos e Queijada and came within 1.2 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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

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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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What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 10 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 144 official ha against 132 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.

Where it burned