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Valadares fire, October 2017 Serrazes, Santa Cruz da Trapa e São Cristóvão de Lafões, Valadares

Out · last detection 16 Oct 2017, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 12 October 2017 in Valadares, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,532 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities.

Number 28 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.9 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
2,532ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
12 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
9
freguesias
Started on
12 Oct
2017
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
706MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Oct16 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

121316

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
63km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 22.5 mm on 17 Oct.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Serrazes 890 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    749 ha reached on 16 Oct
    56 %
  2. Santa Cruz da Trapa e São Cristóvão de Lafões 1,384 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town
    628 ha reached on 12 Oct
    22 %
  3. Valadares 660 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town where it started
    580 ha reached on 16 Oct
    28 %
  4. Vouzela e Paços de Vilharigues 1,918 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    151 ha reached on 16 Oct
    11 %
  5. Oliveira de Frades, Souto de Lafões e Sejães 4,006 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town
    143 ha reached on 16 Oct
    6.4 %
  6. Manhouce 466 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town
    107 ha
    2.6 %
  7. São Vicente de Lafões 748 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    91 ha reached on 16 Oct
    11 %
  8. São Pedro do Sul, Várzea e Baiões 5,497 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    47 ha
    2.1 %
  9. Carvalhais e Candal 1,413 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town
    38 ha reached on 13 Oct
    0.9 %

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 woodland37 %
  • Coniferous forest20 %
  • Mixed forest19 %
  • Other natural land10 %
  • Agricultural areas8.9 %
  • Broadleaved forest4.5 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.6 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 85 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

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)
12 Oct 27.9 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Oct 24.9 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Oct 26.9 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Oct 29.3 °C 23 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Oct 22.8 °C 39 % 53 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 13
17 Oct after 17.3 °C 51 % 57 km/h 22.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Oct 2017
After · 23 Oct 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 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 327 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 166: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak327 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM10358 µg/m³
10111213141516171819
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 · 82Every 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 Valadares fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,532 hectares (25.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: Serrazes (749 ha, 56 %); Santa Cruz da Trapa e São Cristóvão de Lafões (628 ha, 22 %); Valadares (580 ha, 28 %); Vouzela e Paços de Vilharigues (151 ha, 11 %); Oliveira de Frades, Souto de Lafões e Sejães (143 ha, 6.4 %); Manhouce (107 ha, 2.6 %); São Vicente de Lafões (91 ha, 11 %); São Pedro do Sul, Várzea e Baiões (47 ha, 2.1 %); Carvalhais e Candal (38 ha, 0.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Serrazes. 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 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

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
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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.