How long did the Santo Tirso fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 17 July 2020 and 19 July 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 17 July 2020 at 11:32 and declared extinguished on 17 July 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 446 hectares (4.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Agrela (175 ha, 25 %); União das Freguesias de Campo e Sobrado (171 ha, 5.3 %); Seroa (61 ha, 9.8 %); Água Longa (39 ha, 3.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 0.7 km of the centre of Agrela, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 · 2020-07-17 → 2020-07-19

Santo Tirso fire, July 2020 Agrela, União das Freguesias de Campo e Sobrado, Seroa

Out · last detection 19 Jul 2020, 03:14 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2020 in União das Freguesias de Campo e Sobrado, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 446 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 17 July 2020 at 11:32 and declared extinguished on 17 July 2020.

Number 27 in Portugal in 2020, of 67.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Aguiar de Sousa · 2024 Chave · 2017 Arouca · 2025 Celorico de Basto · 2024

Burnt area: 446ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 17 Jul 2020 – 19 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit: 4; freguesias
Started on: 17 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 19; in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 66MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul19 Jul

Play back 19 Jul 2020

How it evolved, day by day

17 Jul 19 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

42km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 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

Agrela 1,486 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre

175 ha reached on 17 Jul

25 %
União das Freguesias de Campo e Sobrado 6,727 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre where it started

171 ha reached on 17 Jul

5.3 %
Seroa 3,757 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre

61 ha reached on 19 Jul

9.8 %
Água Longa 2,342 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre

39 ha reached on 17 Jul

3.0 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland82 %
Coniferous forest8.5 %
Artificial surfaces5.9 %
Agricultural areas3.4 %

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

Official record

Complex of 4 fires according to ICNF

According to ICNF, 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 526 ha (the satellite measured 446 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 61 ha 2 35 ha 3 14 ha 4 416 ha

14 Jul18 Jul

cause unknown or not published

1 Valongo Sobrado 14 July 2020 · 13:36 61 ha · extinguished on 14 July 2020
2 Valongo Sobrado 15 July 2020 · 13:40 35 ha · extinguished on 15 July 2020 · cause: unknown
3 Valongo Sobrado 16 July 2020 · 17:11 14 ha · extinguished on 16 July 2020 · cause: unknown
4 Santo Tirso Agrela 17 July 2020 · 11:32 416 ha · extinguished on 17 July 2020 · cause: unknown

Total according to ICNF: 526 ha, 118 % of the 446 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)
17 Jul	33.6 °C	28 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Jul	31.8 °C	36 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
19 Jul	23.6 °C	66 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
20 Jul after	27.8 °C	56 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
21 Jul after	29.4 °C	49 %	25 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 19
22 Jul after	28.7 °C	52 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
23 Jul after	26.7 °C	57 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
24 Jul after	26.8 °C	45 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
25 Jul after	25.8 °C	50 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
26 Jul after	26.2 °C	55 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
27 Jul after	26.0 °C	58 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
28 Jul after	26.3 °C	58 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
29 Jul after	29.6 °C	52 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 Jul 2020

After · 26 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 22 July 2020 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1038 µg/m³

WHO 15

1516171819202122

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 · 19Every 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 Santo Tirso fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 17 July 2020 and 19 July 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 17 July 2020 at 11:32 and declared extinguished on 17 July 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 446 hectares (4.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Agrela (175 ha, 25 %); União das Freguesias de Campo e Sobrado (171 ha, 5.3 %); Seroa (61 ha, 9.8 %); Água Longa (39 ha, 3.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 0.7 km of the centre of Agrela, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 19 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 526 official ha against 446 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