How long did the Vieira do Minho fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 20 April 2017 and 21 April 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 April 2017 at 14:08 and declared extinguished on 22 April 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 265 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which freguesias burned?

The fire entered 2 freguesias: Anjos e Vilar do Chão (209 ha, 8.4 %); Rossas (56 ha, 1.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Anjos e Vilar do Chão and came within 1.5 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 19.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.

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 · 20 Apr 2017 – 21 Apr 2017

Vieira do Minho fire, April 2017 Anjos e Vilar do Chão, Rossas

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2017, 13:16 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2017 in Anjos e Vilar do Chão, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 265 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 freguesias. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 April 2017 at 14:08 and declared extinguished on 22 April 2017.

It is the 3th largest in Vieira do Minho since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 129 in Portugal in 2017, of 211.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.8 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…

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Burnt area: 265ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 20 Apr 2017 – 21 Apr 2017
Freguesias hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 20 Apr; 2017
Heat detections: 14; in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start: 16; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 104MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr21 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

21 Apr 2017 · 104 MW · 14

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

The weather it burned in

19°high

64km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 20.9 mm on 30 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each freguesia

Anjos e Vilar do Chão 565 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the centre where it started

209 ha reached on 21 Apr

8.4 %
Rossas 3.3 km from the centre

56 ha

1.8 %

Burnt area inside each freguesia, 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 land83 %
Scrub and transitional woodland11 %
Broadleaved forest3.0 %
Mixed forest2.3 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 21 April 2017 and burned 222 ha (the satellite measured 265 ha).

Vieira do Minho Anjos 21 April 2017 · 14:08 222 ha · extinguished on 22 April 2017 · cause: unknown

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)
20 Apr	18.9 °C	24 %	64 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
21 Apr	19.1 °C	24 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
22 Apr after	19.4 °C	32 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
23 Apr after	19.5 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
24 Apr after	17.8 °C	50 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
25 Apr after	11.8 °C	64 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
26 Apr after	10.1 °C	45 %	42 km/h	0.3 mm	Low 9
27 Apr after	12.8 °C	23 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
28 Apr after	14.0 °C	21 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
29 Apr after	12.2 °C	47 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
30 Apr after	7.3 °C	70 %	79 km/h	20.9 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Apr 2017

After · 28 Apr 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 24 April 2017 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1036 µg/m³

WHO 15

18 Apr20 Apr22 Apr24 Apr

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 · 14Every 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

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Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vieira do Minho fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 20 April 2017 and 21 April 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 April 2017 at 14:08 and declared extinguished on 22 April 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 265 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which freguesias burned?: The fire entered 2 freguesias: Anjos e Vilar do Chão (209 ha, 8.4 %); Rossas (56 ha, 1.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Anjos e Vilar do Chão and came within 1.5 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 19.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
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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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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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 14 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 222 official ha against 265 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

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. Freguesia boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per freguesia 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