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Valença fire, October 2023 Boivão, Gondomil e Safins

Out · last measured on 13 Oct 2023

The fire started on 13 October 2023 in Boivão, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 185 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 October 2023 at 20:20 and declared extinguished on 13 October 2023.

Number 25 in Portugal in 2023, of 38.

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
185ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
13 Oct 2023 – 13 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
13 Oct
2023
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

19°high
69km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 14 Oct.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 84 ha in 2016, 96 ha in 2019, 4 ha in 2020, 48 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 180 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Boivão 185 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town where it started
    160 ha
    20 %
  2. Gondomil e Safins 418 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town
    25 ha
    1.4 %

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 land98 %
  • Coniferous forest1.1 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 12 October 2023 and burned 170 ha (the satellite measured 185 ha).

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)
13 Oct 19.2 °C 45 % 69 km/h 16.7 mm Very low 0
14 Oct after 20.9 °C 60 % 25 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Oct 2023
After · 20 Oct 2023

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 12 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1035 µg/m³
Optical depth0.45
111213141516
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 Valença fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 October 2023 and 13 October 2023: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 October 2023 at 20:20 and declared extinguished on 13 October 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 185 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Boivão (160 ha, 20 %); Gondomil e Safins (25 ha, 1.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Boivão. 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 19.2 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 69 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very low.
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.