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Tomar fire, August 2017 União das Freguesias de Serra e Junceira

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2017, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2017 in União das Freguesias de Serra e Junceira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 411 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

Number 101 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (3.2 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
411ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
10 Aug 2017 – 13 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
freguesias
Started on
10 Aug
2017
Heat detections
2
in a single hotspot: 3 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug13 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

13

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
41km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 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

  1. União das Freguesias de Serra e Junceira 1,299 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town where it started
    411 ha reached on 13 Aug
    8.8 %

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

  • Mixed forest44 %
  • Agricultural areas39 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland13 %
  • Broadleaved forest3.9 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 12 August 2017 and burned 708 ha (the satellite measured 411 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
10 Aug 30.8 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Aug 34.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Aug 36.4 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Aug 35.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Aug after 32.3 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Aug after 30.2 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Aug after 31.7 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Aug after 35.0 °C 28 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Aug after 33.0 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug after 36.1 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Aug after 39.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Aug after 35.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Aug after 33.7 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug after 32.3 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2017
After · 20 Aug 2017

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 10 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak84 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1094 µg/m³
8910111213141516
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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tomar fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2017 and 13 August 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 411 hectares (4.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered União das Freguesias de Serra e Junceira (411 ha, 8.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of União das Freguesias de Serra e Junceira. 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 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
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

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?

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.