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Porto fire, December 2018 Lubián, Porto

Out · last detection 1 Jan 2019, 14:32 UTC

The fire started on 31 December 2018 in Porto, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 373 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Zamora since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 4 in Spain in 2018, of 23.

Burnt area
373ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
31 Dec 2018 – 31 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
31 Dec
2018
Heat detections
34
in a single hotspot: 75 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
549MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Dec31 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

311

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

The weather it burned in

10°high
16km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 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

  1. Lubián 296 inhabitants · 5.2 km from the town
    257 ha reached on 31 Dec
    2.7 %
  2. Porto 147 inhabitants · 6.7 km from the town where it started
    116 ha reached on 31 Dec
    0.6 %

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 land100 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 17 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 31 December 2018 and burned 279 ha (the satellite measured 373 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

MITECO, Estadística General de Incendios Forestales (EGIF). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
31 Dec 9.8 °C 36 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
1 Jan after 9.3 °C 40 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
2 Jan after 6.6 °C 54 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
3 Jan after 6.9 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
4 Jan after 7.1 °C 25 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
5 Jan after 8.3 °C 23 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
6 Jan after 8.8 °C 28 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
7 Jan after 8.1 °C 28 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
8 Jan after 7.1 °C 50 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
9 Jan after 7.1 °C 62 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
10 Jan after 4.6 °C 52 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Dec 2018
After · 7 Jan 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.

Detections table · 34Every 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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Porto fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 31 December 2018 and 31 December 2018: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 373 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lubián (257 ha, 2.7 %); Porto (116 ha, 0.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.2 km of Lubián. 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 9.8 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 16 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 1, class Very low.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Spain (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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.