How long did the Seia fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 24 August 2018 and 25 August 2018: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 August 2018 at 16:13 and declared extinguished on 25 August 2018.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 238 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loriga (152 ha, 4.2 %); Alvoco da Serra (86 ha, 2.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.2 km of Loriga. 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 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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 · 2018-08-24 → 2018-08-25

Seia fire, August 2018 Loriga, Alvoco da Serra

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2018, 01:47 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2018 in Loriga, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 238 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 August 2018 at 16:13 and declared extinguished on 25 August 2018.

Number 11 in Portugal in 2018, of 23.

The power measured by the satellite is low (3.5 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: 238ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 24 Aug 2018 – 25 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 24 Aug; 2018
Heat detections: 3; in a single hotspot: 4 MW
Danger at start: 33; High · FWI index
Energy released: 9MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

29°high

40km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 28 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Loriga 848 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town

152 ha reached on 25 Aug

4.2 %
Alvoco da Serra 331 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town where it started

86 ha reached on 25 Aug

2.3 %

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 woodland100 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

LIC Serra da Estrela PTCON0014

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 ICNF, this fire started on 24 August 2018 and burned 225 ha (the satellite measured 238 ha).

Seia Loriga 24 August 2018 · 16:13 225 ha · extinguished on 25 August 2018 · cause: unknown

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)
24 Aug	29.0 °C	25 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
25 Aug	27.2 °C	27 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Aug after	28.6 °C	29 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
27 Aug after	28.9 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.3 mm	High 32
28 Aug after	23.0 °C	57 %	38 km/h	2.8 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Aug 2018

After · 1 Sept 2018

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 28 August 2018 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1024 µg/m³

WHO 15

22232425262728

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 · 3Every 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 Seia fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 24 August 2018 and 25 August 2018: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 August 2018 at 16:13 and declared extinguished on 25 August 2018.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 238 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loriga (152 ha, 4.2 %); Alvoco da Serra (86 ha, 2.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.2 km of Loriga. 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 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned