How long did the Sernancelhe 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 12:02 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,287 hectares (22.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 6 municipalities: Carregal (1,038 ha, 50 %); Granjal (635 ha, 46 %); Penso e Freixinho (339 ha, 24 %); Quintela (208 ha, 15 %); Vila da Ponte (69 ha, 5.4 %); União das freguesias de Sequeiros e Gradiz (1 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire reached the centre of Granjal: 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 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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 · 2020-08-06 → 2020-08-07

Sernancelhe fire, August 2020 Carregal, Granjal, Penso e Freixinho

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2020, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2020 in Carregal, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,287 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 August 2020 at 12:02 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2020.

Number 6 in Portugal in 2020, of 67.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Trancoso · 2025 Fornos de Algodres · 2017 Penalva do Castelo · 2024 Castro Daire · 2024

Burnt area: 2,287ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 6 Aug 2020 – 7 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 6; freguesias
Started on: 6 Aug; 2020
Heat detections: 101; in a single hotspot: 199 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 2.4GW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug7 Aug

Play back 7 Aug 2020

How it evolved, day by day

6 Aug 7 Aug

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

47km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 17 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 1.4% of the area of London (23 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Carregal 420 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre where it started

1,038 ha reached on 6 Aug

50 %
Granjal 282 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

635 ha reached on 6 Aug

46 %
Penso e Freixinho 364 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre

339 ha reached on 7 Aug

24 %
Quintela 249 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre

208 ha reached on 6 Aug

15 %
Vila da Ponte 468 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre

69 ha reached on 7 Aug

5.4 %
União das freguesias de Sequeiros e Gradiz

1 ha

0.0 %

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 woodland42 %
Other natural land34 %
Agricultural areas14 %
Coniferous forest9.9 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020

Built-up area1.2 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.2 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 2,269 ha (the satellite measured 2,287 ha).

Sernancelhe Quintela 6 August 2020 · 12:02 2,269 ha · extinguished on 9 August 2020 · cause: negligence

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	33.7 °C	22 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
7 Aug	31.5 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
8 Aug after	30.3 °C	35 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
9 Aug after	29.5 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
10 Aug after	28.9 °C	25 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
11 Aug after	27.1 °C	27 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
12 Aug after	24.0 °C	38 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	High 33
13 Aug after	25.5 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Aug after	25.5 °C	26 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
15 Aug after	21.6 °C	34 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Aug after	22.3 °C	41 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Aug after	20.1 °C	68 %	57 km/h	5.3 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 30 Jul 2020

After · 14 Aug 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 7 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak76 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM10102 µg/m³

WHO 15

45678910

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 · 101Every 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 Sernancelhe 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 12:02 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,287 hectares (22.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 6 municipalities: Carregal (1,038 ha, 50 %); Granjal (635 ha, 46 %); Penso e Freixinho (339 ha, 24 %); Quintela (208 ha, 15 %); Vila da Ponte (69 ha, 5.4 %); União das freguesias de Sequeiros e Gradiz (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire reached the centre of Granjal: 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 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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 ›

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.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 101 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 2,269 official ha against 2,287 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.

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