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Vale do Côa fire, August 2017 Vale do Côa

Out · last measured on 15 Aug 2017

The fire started on 15 August 2017 in Vale do Côa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 108 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 10th largest in Pinhel since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 201 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
108ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
15 Aug 2017 – 15 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
freguesias
Started on
15 Aug
2017
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
36km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 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. Vale do Côa 172 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the town where it started
    108 ha reached on 15 Aug
    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

  • Other natural land80 %
  • Agricultural areas20 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 53 ha (the satellite measured 108 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)
15 Aug 28.6 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Aug after 30.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Aug after 32.9 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Aug after 31.3 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug after 32.2 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Aug after 34.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug after 36.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Aug after 33.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Aug after 33.3 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Aug after 28.6 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug after 29.7 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2017
After · 22 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 14 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak21 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1027 µg/m³
131415161718
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vale do Côa fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2017 and 15 August 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 108 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vale do Côa (108 ha, 2.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.8 km of Vale do Côa. 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 28.6 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 36 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
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.