Sabrosa fire, August 2020 São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães, Paços
The fire started on 6 August 2020 in São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 224 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 August 2020 at 15:37 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2020.
Number 37 in Portugal in 2020, of 67.
The power measured by the satellite is low (1.2 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…
- Burnt area
- 224ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 6 Aug 2020 – 7 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 6 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 1 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
7 Aug 2020 · 1 MW · 1
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães 948 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started192 ha reached on 7 Aug7.6 %
-
Paços 676 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre32 ha1.9 %
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
- Coniferous forest35 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland31 %
- Agricultural areas20 %
- Other natural land13 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 0.53 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 6 August 2020 and burned 218 ha (the satellite measured 224 ha).
- Sabrosa São Martinho de Antas 6 August 2020 · 15:37 218 ha · extinguished on 7 August 2020 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Aug | 35.2 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Aug | 32.2 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Aug after | 27.9 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Aug after | 22.4 °C | 57 % | 35 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 13 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Aug after | 22.5 °C | 39 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Aug after | 22.1 °C | 47 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Aug after | 21.9 °C | 59 % | 50 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 11 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 6 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 1Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,850 haVila Real Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã21 August 2022 · 6 days · 16 km away
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 17 km away
- 6,087 haVila Real Vila Marim3 August 2025 · 13 days · 18 km away
- 6,118 haVila Pouca de Aguiar Telões17 September 2024 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 7,641 haMurça TresminasJuly 2022 · 5 days · 27 km away
- 78,447 haTrancoso Trancoso (São Pedro e Santa Maria) e Souto MaiorAugust 2025 · 11 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sabrosa fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 6 August 2020 and 7 August 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 August 2020 at 15:37 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 224 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães (192 ha, 7.6 %); Paços (32 ha, 1.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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 ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 218 official ha against 224 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.