How long did the Valpaços fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2022 and 26 August 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2022 at 12:28 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 505 hectares (5.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Valpaços e Sanfins (309 ha, 7.9 %); Rio Torto (176 ha, 5.7 %); Vale de Salgueiro (20 ha, 1.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Valpaços e Sanfins. 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 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % 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 · 2022-08-23 → 2022-08-26

Valpaços fire, 23 August 2022 Valpaços e Sanfins, Rio Torto, Vale de Salgueiro

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2022, 01:34 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2022 in Valpaços e Sanfins, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 505 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2022 at 12:28 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2022.

Number 26 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Burnt area: 505ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 23 Aug 2022 – 26 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 23 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 15; in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 298MW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Aug 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

23242526

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

37km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 5 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Valpaços e Sanfins 4,661 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town where it started

309 ha reached on 23 Aug

7.9 %
Rio Torto 284 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town

176 ha reached on 23 Aug

5.7 %
Vale de Salgueiro 344 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town

20 ha

1.3 %

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 woodland52 %
Agricultural areas37 %
Other natural land10 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 23 August 2022 and burned 448 ha (the satellite measured 505 ha).

Valpaços Rio Torto 23 August 2022 · 12:28 448 ha · extinguished on 24 August 2022 · 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)
23 Aug	35.6 °C	28 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
24 Aug	33.8 °C	34 %	37 km/h	0.6 mm	High 35
25 Aug	33.3 °C	33 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
26 Aug	32.0 °C	35 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
27 Aug after	33.0 °C	28 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
28 Aug after	34.0 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
29 Aug after	31.4 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.7 mm	High 31
30 Aug after	29.8 °C	30 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
31 Aug after	28.4 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
1 Sept after	28.0 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Sept after	26.3 °C	39 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
3 Sept after	26.5 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Sept after	25.9 °C	35 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
5 Sept after	24.0 °C	51 %	50 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Aug 2022

After · 2 Sept 2022

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 28 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1023 µg/m³

Optical depth0.55

WHO 15

212223242526272829

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 Valpaços fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2022 and 26 August 2022: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 23 August 2022 at 12:28 and declared extinguished on 24 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 505 hectares (5.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Valpaços e Sanfins (309 ha, 7.9 %); Rio Torto (176 ha, 5.7 %); Vale de Salgueiro (20 ha, 1.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Valpaços e Sanfins. 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 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % 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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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