How long did the Seia fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 14 July 2022 and 14 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 15:17 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 540 hectares (5.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sameice e Santa Eulália (277 ha, 19 %); União das Freguesias de Tourais e Lajes (157 ha, 6.0 %); Travancinha (106 ha, 8.5 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Sameice e Santa Eulália. 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 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-07-14 → 2022-07-14

Seia fire, July 2022 Sameice e Santa Eulália, União das Freguesias de Tourais e Lajes, Travancinha

Out · last detection 14 Jul 2022, 13:03 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2022 in Sameice e Santa Eulália, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 540 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 15:17 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2022.

Number 25 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Burnt area: 540ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 14 Jul 2022 – 14 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 14 Jul; 2022
Heat detections: 21; in a single hotspot: 138 MW
Danger at start: 43; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 672MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul14 Jul

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

40°high

40km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 540 ha in 2017.

540 ha Pombeiro da Beira fire, October 2017 132,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Sameice e Santa Eulália 508 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town where it started

277 ha reached on 14 Jul

19 %
União das Freguesias de Tourais e Lajes 1,529 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town

157 ha reached on 14 Jul

6.0 %
Travancinha 387 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town

106 ha reached on 14 Jul

8.5 %

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 woodland34 %
Agricultural areas24 %
Mixed forest22 %
Other natural land20 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

LIC Carregal do Sal PTCON0027

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 13 July 2022 and burned 533 ha (the satellite measured 540 ha).

Seia Santa Eulália 13 July 2022 · 15:17 533 ha · extinguished on 15 July 2022 · 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)
14 Jul	39.5 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 43
15 Jul after	37.0 °C	23 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
16 Jul after	36.6 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Jul after	37.1 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 47
18 Jul after	30.0 °C	34 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Jul after	27.1 °C	44 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
20 Jul after	33.8 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
21 Jul after	32.6 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
22 Jul after	32.5 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
23 Jul after	34.0 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
24 Jul after	31.7 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Jul 2022

After · 21 Jul 2022

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 15 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1043 µg/m³

WHO 15

121314151617

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 · 21Every 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 14 July 2022 and 14 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 July 2022 at 15:17 and declared extinguished on 15 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 540 hectares (5.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sameice e Santa Eulália (277 ha, 19 %); União das Freguesias de Tourais e Lajes (157 ha, 6.0 %); Travancinha (106 ha, 8.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Sameice e Santa Eulália. 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 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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

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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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