How long did the Valpaços fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 16 August 2017 and 17 August 2017: 2 days 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 entered 3 municipalities: Possacos (86 ha, 6.6 %); Vale de Telhas (20 ha, 1.3 %); Vale de Salgueiro (2 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Possacos. 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 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 37 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 · 2017-08-16 → 2017-08-17

Valpaços fire, August 2017 Possacos, Vale de Telhas, Vale de Salgueiro

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2017, 13:03 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2017 in Possacos, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 108 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 201 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (3.4 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: 108ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 16 Aug 2017 – 17 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 16 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 10; in a single hotspot: 3 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 22MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug17 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

34°high

37km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 26 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Possacos 358 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town where it started

86 ha reached on 17 Aug

6.6 %
Vale de Telhas 263 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the town

20 ha reached on 17 Aug

1.3 %
Vale de Salgueiro 344 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town

2 ha

0.1 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland48 %
Agricultural areas30 %
Broadleaved forest22 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 16 August 2017 and burned 159 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.

Valpaços Possacos 16 August 2017 · 17:04 159 ha · extinguished on 17 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	Rain	Danger (FWI)
16 Aug	31.8 °C	29 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
17 Aug	33.8 °C	27 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Aug after	32.0 °C	32 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
19 Aug after	32.6 °C	28 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
20 Aug after	35.2 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
21 Aug after	36.7 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Aug after	34.0 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
23 Aug after	33.5 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
24 Aug after	28.8 °C	32 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Aug after	30.0 °C	26 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Aug after	30.9 °C	28 %	42 km/h	1.2 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Aug 2017

After · 24 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 14 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak15 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1022 µg/m³

WHO 15

14151617181920

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 · 10Every 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 Valpaços fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 16 August 2017 and 17 August 2017: 2 days 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 entered 3 municipalities: Possacos (86 ha, 6.6 %); Vale de Telhas (20 ha, 1.3 %); Vale de Salgueiro (2 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Possacos. 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 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 37 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