How long did the Valoura fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2017 and 2 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 761 hectares (7.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Valoura (351 ha, 24 %); Oura (300 ha, 20 %); Loivos e Póvoa de Agrações (56 ha, 2.9 %); Vreia de Bornes (55 ha, 3.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.9 km of Oura. 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 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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.

PT · Portugal · 2017-08-02 → 2017-08-02

Valoura fire, August 2017 Valoura, Oura, Loivos e Póvoa de Agrações

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2017, 14:25 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2017 in Valoura, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 761 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Vila Pouca de Aguiar since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 73 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area: 761ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 2 Aug 2017 – 2 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 4; freguesias
Started on: 2 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 15; in a single hotspot: 135 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 1.0GW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug2 Aug

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

29°high

41km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 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

Valoura 295 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town where it started

351 ha reached on 2 Aug

24 %
Oura 515 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town

300 ha reached on 2 Aug

20 %
Loivos e Póvoa de Agrações 586 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town

56 ha

2.9 %
Vreia de Bornes 567 inhabitants · 3.9 km from the town

55 ha reached on 2 Aug

3.1 %

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 land48 %
Agricultural areas30 %
Scrub and transitional woodland15 %
Coniferous forest4.0 %
Artificial surfaces2.1 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 2 August 2017 and burned 441 ha (the satellite measured 761 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Chaves Oura 2 August 2017 · 14:14 441 ha · extinguished on 3 August 2017 · cause: arson

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	Danger (FWI)
2 Aug	29.4 °C	18 %	41 km/h	Very high 38
3 Aug after	31.4 °C	38 %	49 km/h	High 37
4 Aug after	32.3 °C	38 %	44 km/h	High 34
5 Aug after	29.7 °C	37 %	53 km/h	High 37
6 Aug after	30.7 °C	26 %	37 km/h	High 33
7 Aug after	26.3 °C	37 %	51 km/h	High 36
8 Aug after	24.0 °C	30 %	44 km/h	High 33
9 Aug after	22.8 °C	28 %	56 km/h	High 38
10 Aug after	26.4 °C	23 %	33 km/h	High 31
11 Aug after	28.9 °C	20 %	31 km/h	High 34
12 Aug after	31.7 °C	20 %	27 km/h	High 35

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 26 Jul 2017

After · 9 Aug 2017

Before After

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 2 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1017 µg/m³

3112345

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 · 15Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Valoura fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2017 and 2 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 761 hectares (7.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Valoura (351 ha, 24 %); Oura (300 ha, 20 %); Loivos e Póvoa de Agrações (56 ha, 2.9 %); Vreia de Bornes (55 ha, 3.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.9 km of Oura. 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 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned