How long did the Viana do Castelo fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 31 January 2022 and 31 January 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 30 January 2022 at 17:03 and declared extinguished on 31 January 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 231 hectares (2.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda (96 ha, 3.5 %); Perre (91 ha, 6.9 %); Outeiro (45 ha, 2.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 2.0 km of the centre of Outeiro, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 14.6 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-01-31 → 2022-01-31

Viana do Castelo fire, January 2022 Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda, Perre, Outeiro

Out · last detection 31 Jan 2022, 12:39 UTC

The fire started on 31 January 2022 in Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 231 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 30 January 2022 at 17:03 and declared extinguished on 31 January 2022.

Number 58 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda · 2016 Cabração e Moreira do Lima · 2016 Caminha · 2016 Barcelos · 2016

Burnt area: 231ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 31 Jan 2022 – 31 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 31 Jan; 2022
Heat detections: 7; in a single hotspot: 72 MW
Danger at start: 6; Low · FWI index
Average daily power: 174MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jan31 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

31 Jan 2022 · 174 MW · 7

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

The weather it burned in

15°high

36km/h · peak gust

50%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 231 ha in 2016.

231 ha Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda fire, August 2016 2,698 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda 1,433 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the centre where it started

96 ha reached on 31 Jan

3.5 %
Perre 2,772 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the centre

91 ha reached on 31 Jan

6.9 %
Outeiro 2.0 km from the centre

45 ha

2.4 %

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

Other natural land86 %
Scrub and transitional woodland14 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 30 January 2022 and burned 239 ha (the satellite measured 231 ha).

Viana do Castelo Outeiro 30 January 2022 · 17:03 239 ha · extinguished on 31 January 2022 · cause: negligence

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)
31 Jan	14.6 °C	50 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
1 Feb after	15.5 °C	51 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
2 Feb after	16.4 °C	54 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 5
3 Feb after	12.1 °C	77 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
4 Feb after	11.7 °C	75 %	28 km/h	0.9 mm	Very low 1
5 Feb after	13.4 °C	64 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
6 Feb after	13.2 °C	57 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 3
7 Feb after	16.0 °C	50 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
8 Feb after	16.4 °C	43 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 5
9 Feb after	15.4 °C	53 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 5
10 Feb after	14.3 °C	66 %	22 km/h	0.6 mm	Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Jan 2022

After · 7 Feb 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 3 February 2022 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1039 µg/m³

WHO 15

293031123

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 · 7Every 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 Viana do Castelo fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 31 January 2022 and 31 January 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 30 January 2022 at 17:03 and declared extinguished on 31 January 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 231 hectares (2.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de Murteda (96 ha, 3.5 %); Perre (91 ha, 6.9 %); Outeiro (45 ha, 2.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 2.0 km of the centre of Outeiro, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 14.6 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 7 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 239 official ha against 231 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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