How long did the Sever do Vouga fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 7 July 2022 and 8 July 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2022 at 12:18 and declared extinguished on 9 July 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 211 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Talhadas (110 ha, 3.8 %); Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba (102 ha, 2.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba. 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 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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 · 2022-07-07 → 2022-07-08

Sever do Vouga fire, July 2022 Talhadas, Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba

Out · last detection 8 Jul 2022, 01:53 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2022 in Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 211 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2022 at 12:18 and declared extinguished on 9 July 2022.

Number 65 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Burnt area: 211ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 7 Jul 2022 – 8 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 7 Jul; 2022
Heat detections: 14; in a single hotspot: 233 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Jul 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul8 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

35°high

47km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 12 Jul.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18 ha in 2016.

18 ha Águeda fire, August 2016 7,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Talhadas 1,126 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town where it started

110 ha reached on 7 Jul

3.8 %
Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba 703 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town

102 ha reached on 7 Jul

2.4 %

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

Broadleaved forest84 %
Scrub and transitional woodland8.1 %
Agricultural areas8.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 7 July 2022 and burned 223 ha (the satellite measured 211 ha).

Sever do Vouga Talhadas 7 July 2022 · 12:18 223 ha · extinguished on 9 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)
7 Jul	33.8 °C	26 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 Jul	35.4 °C	22 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
9 Jul after	36.1 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
10 Jul after	33.7 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
11 Jul after	29.3 °C	51 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
12 Jul after	39.7 °C	21 %	32 km/h	1.0 mm	High 29

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 30 Jun 2022

After · 15 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 7 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1034 µg/m³

WHO 15

567891011

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 · 14Every 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 Sever do Vouga fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 7 July 2022 and 8 July 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2022 at 12:18 and declared extinguished on 9 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 211 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Talhadas (110 ha, 3.8 %); Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba (102 ha, 2.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba. 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 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.

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.

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