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Pópulo e Ribalonga fire, April 2017 Pópulo e Ribalonga, Vilar de Maçada, Vila Verde

Out · last detection 27 Apr 2017, 01:40 UTC

The fire started on 25 April 2017 in Pópulo e Ribalonga, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 130 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Alijó since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 180 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.4 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
130ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
25 Apr 2017 – 27 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
25 Apr
2017
Heat detections
7
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
120MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Apr27 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2527

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

The weather it burned in

16°high
54km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.5 mm on 30 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Pópulo e Ribalonga 409 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town where it started
    124 ha reached on 25 Apr
    5.8 %
  2. Vilar de Maçada 816 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town
    5 ha
    0.3 %
  3. Vila Verde 3.4 km from the town
    1 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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland86 %
  • Other natural land14 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 330 ha (the satellite measured 130 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)
25 Apr 16.0 °C 56 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
26 Apr 11.5 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
27 Apr 14.4 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Apr after 16.3 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Apr after 15.8 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
30 Apr after 10.0 °C 62 % 78 km/h 6.5 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Apr 2017
After · 4 May 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 25 April 2017 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1037 µg/m³
2324252627282930
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 · 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 Pópulo e Ribalonga fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 25 April 2017 and 27 April 2017: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 130 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pópulo e Ribalonga (124 ha, 5.8 %); Vilar de Maçada (5 ha, 0.3 %); Vila Verde (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.7 km of Pópulo e Ribalonga. 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 16.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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
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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.