How long did the Tabuaço fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 18 July 2019 and 18 July 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 July 2019 at 15:20 and declared extinguished on 18 July 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 199 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tabuaço (133 ha, 13 %); Chavães (41 ha, 4.3 %); União das Freguesias de Távora e Pereiro (25 ha, 2.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.0 km of Tabuaço. 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 28.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.

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 · 2019-07-18 → 2019-07-18

Tabuaço fire, July 2019 Tabuaço, Chavães, União das Freguesias de Távora e Pereiro

Out · last detection 18 Jul 2019, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2019 in Tabuaço, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 199 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 July 2019 at 15:20 and declared extinguished on 18 July 2019.

Number 27 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.

The power measured by the satellite is low (4.6 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: 199ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 18 Jul 2019 – 18 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 18 Jul; 2019
Heat detections: 7; in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 15MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul18 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

29°high

27km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Tabuaço 1,535 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town

133 ha reached on 18 Jul

13 %
Chavães 299 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town

41 ha

4.3 %
União das Freguesias de Távora e Pereiro 362 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town where it started

25 ha reached on 18 Jul

2.1 %

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 woodland84 %
Mixed forest16 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 17 July 2019 and burned 171 ha (the satellite measured 199 ha).

Tabuaço Chavães 17 July 2019 · 15:20 171 ha · extinguished on 18 July 2019 · 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)
18 Jul	28.7 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
19 Jul after	29.4 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
20 Jul after	28.0 °C	37 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
21 Jul after	29.8 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
22 Jul after	32.8 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.8 mm	High 23
23 Jul after	29.3 °C	40 %	38 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 19
24 Jul after	30.5 °C	31 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
25 Jul after	25.0 °C	45 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
26 Jul after	22.4 °C	38 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
27 Jul after	22.7 °C	50 %	36 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 17
28 Jul after	25.3 °C	35 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Jul 2019

After · 25 Jul 2019

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 17 July 2019 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

PM1027 µg/m³

WHO 15

161718192021

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 · 7Every 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 Tabuaço fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 18 July 2019 and 18 July 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 July 2019 at 15:20 and declared extinguished on 18 July 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 199 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tabuaço (133 ha, 13 %); Chavães (41 ha, 4.3 %); União das Freguesias de Távora e Pereiro (25 ha, 2.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.0 km of Tabuaço. 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 28.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
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