Valpaços fire, 24 August 2022 Vassal, Ervões, Valpaços e Sanfins
The fire started on 24 August 2022 in Vassal, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 466 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 August 2022 at 17:35 and declared extinguished on 26 August 2022.
Number 31 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.
The power measured by the satellite is low (20.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 466ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 24 Aug 2022 – 29 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 29
- in a single hotspot: 21 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 58MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
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
It had gone 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 29 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
349 ha reached on 25 Aug27 %
-
Ervões 534 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre92 ha reached on 25 Aug4.2 %
-
Valpaços e Sanfins 4,661 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the centre25 ha reached on 26 Aug0.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Agricultural areas63 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland37 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 24 August 2022 and burned 410 ha (the satellite measured 466 ha).
- Valpaços Ervões 24 August 2022 · 17:35 410 ha · extinguished on 26 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 1.5 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Aug | 31.9 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 26 Aug | 30.9 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Aug | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Aug | 33.0 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Aug | 29.9 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 1.8 mm | Moderate 20 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 29 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 29Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Valpaços fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 August 2022 to 29 August 2022 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2022 to 26 August 2022. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 August 2022 at 17:35 and declared extinguished on 26 August 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 466 hectares (4.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Vassal (349 ha, 27 %); Ervões (92 ha, 4.2 %); Valpaços e Sanfins (25 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Vassal and came within 1.0 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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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How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 August 2022 to 26 August 2022. 29 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 410 official ha against 466 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.