Torre de Moncorvo fire, June 2017 Cabeça Boa, Lousa, Horta da Vilariça
The fire started on 22 June 2017 in Cabeça Boa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,233 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 21 June 2017 at 16:45 and declared extinguished on 23 June 2017.
It is the 2th largest in Torre de Moncorvo since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 25 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.
The power measured by the satellite is low (26.5 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…
- Burnt area
- 3,233ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 22 Jun 2017 – 24 Jun 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- freguesias
- Started on
- 22 Jun
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 124
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 324MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
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
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 25 Jun.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
1,829 ha reached on 22 Jun69 %
-
Lousa 0.6 km from the centre796 ha reached on 22 Jun23 %
-
Horta da Vilariça 208 inhabitants · fire reached the centre353 ha reached on 22 Jun21 %
-
Castedo 180 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre181 ha reached on 22 Jun10 %
-
Vila Nova de Foz Côa 3,101 inhabitants · 6.7 km from the centre76 ha0.8 %
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
- Other natural land77 %
- Agricultural areas18 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland2.3 %
- Other land cover2.0 %
- Broadleaved forest0.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 4.0 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (GHSL 2015, 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
Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 2,971 ha (the satellite measured 3,233 ha).
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Torre de Moncorvo Lousa 21 June 2017 · 16:45 1,610 ha · extinguished on 23 June 2017 · cause: natural (lightning)
- 2 Torre de Moncorvo Cabeça Boa 21 June 2017 · 16:58 1,360 ha · extinguished on 22 June 2017 · cause: natural (lightning)
Total according to ICNF: 2,971 ha, 92 % of the 3,233 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jun | 31.5 °C | 37 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Jun | 30.0 °C | 25 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Jun | 29.0 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Jun after | 26.3 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 2.4 mm | Low 8 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 22 June 2017 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 124Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,403 haTorre de Moncorvo Vilarinho da CastanheiraAugust 2026 · 4 days · 5 km away
- 3,389 haCarrazeda de Ansiães LinharesJuly 2022 · 6 days · 16 km away
- 5,163 haMirandela FrechasAugust 2025 · 3 days · 22 km away
- 5,710 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta LigaresAugust 2017 · 2 days · 24 km away
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 28 km away
- 11,932 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta CarviçaisAugust 2025 · 4 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Torre de Moncorvo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 June 2017 to 24 June 2017 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 June 2017 to 23 June 2017. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 21 June 2017 at 16:45 and declared extinguished on 23 June 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,233 hectares (32.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Cabeça Boa (1,829 ha, 69 %); Lousa (796 ha, 23 %); Horta da Vilariça (353 ha, 21 %); Castedo (181 ha, 10 %); Vila Nova de Foz Côa (76 ha, 0.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Cabeça Boa and reached its centre: 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 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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 ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 June 2017 to 23 June 2017. 124 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 2,971 official ha against 3,233 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 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.