How long did the Sobreira fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2022 and 23 August 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 22 August 2022 at 15:49 and declared extinguished on 22 August 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 142 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Recarei (61 ha, 4.2 %); Sobreira (42 ha, 1.9 %); Aguiar de Sousa (38 ha, 1.7 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 0.6 km of the centre of Recarei, 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 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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 · 2022-08-23 → 2022-08-23

Sobreira fire, August 2022 Recarei, Sobreira, Aguiar de Sousa

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2022, 13:54 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2022 in Sobreira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 142 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 22 August 2022 at 15:49 and declared extinguished on 22 August 2022.

It is the 9th largest in Paredes since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 86 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Recarei · 2016 Sobreira · 2016 Aguiar de Sousa · 2024 Chave · 2017

Burnt area: 142ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 23 Aug 2022 – 23 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 23 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 2; in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 17MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

23 Aug 2022 · 17 MW · 2

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

28km/h · peak gust

46%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 103 ha in 2016, 9 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 104 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Recarei 4,479 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre

61 ha

4.2 %
Sobreira 4,124 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre where it started

42 ha reached on 23 Aug

1.9 %
Aguiar de Sousa 1,582 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the centre

38 ha reached on 23 Aug

1.7 %

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 woodland92 %
Agricultural areas5.6 %
Artificial surfaces2.8 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020

Built-up area1.6 ha

Residents≈ 70

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.6 hectares of built-up land and about 70 residents (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 22 August 2022 and burned 129 ha (the satellite measured 142 ha).

Paredes Recarei 22 August 2022 · 15:49 129 ha · extinguished on 22 August 2022 · 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)
23 Aug	31.7 °C	46 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
24 Aug after	24.0 °C	75 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
25 Aug after	30.4 °C	49 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
26 Aug after	31.1 °C	47 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
27 Aug after	26.1 °C	65 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
28 Aug after	25.3 °C	59 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
29 Aug after	24.9 °C	59 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
30 Aug after	23.9 °C	57 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
31 Aug after	23.8 °C	61 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
1 Sept after	23.7 °C	67 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
2 Sept after	23.0 °C	64 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Aug 2022

After · 30 Aug 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 24 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak66 µg/m³

Days over the guideline3 days

PM1031 µg/m³

Optical depth0.57

WHO 15

212223242526

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 · 2Every 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 Sobreira fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2022 and 23 August 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 22 August 2022 at 15:49 and declared extinguished on 22 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 142 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Recarei (61 ha, 4.2 %); Sobreira (42 ha, 1.9 %); Aguiar de Sousa (38 ha, 1.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 0.6 km of the centre of Recarei, 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 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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

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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 129 official ha against 142 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