How long did the Vila Real fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 14 August 2022 and 15 August 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2022 at 22:37 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Campeã (73 ha, 3.0 %); Ansiães (30 ha, 1.1 %); Fontes (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Campeã. 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 19.1 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-08-14 → 2022-08-15

Vila Real fire, 14 August 2022 Campeã, Ansiães, Fontes

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2022, 13:04 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2022 in Campeã, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 103 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2022 at 22:37 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2022.

Number 103 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

Burnt area: 103ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 14 Aug 2022 – 15 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 14 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 23; in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 246MW; sum of detected power

Play back 15 Aug 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1415

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

44km/h · peak gust

42%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 16 Aug.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

Campeã 1,226 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town where it started

73 ha reached on 14 Aug

3.0 %
Ansiães 516 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the town

30 ha reached on 14 Aug

1.1 %
Fontes 4.5 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

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 woodland70 %
Other natural land18 %
Mixed forest11 %
Coniferous forest0.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

LIC Alvão / Marão PTCON0003

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 13 August 2022 and burned 108 ha (the satellite measured 103 ha).

Vila Real Campeã 13 August 2022 · 22:37 108 ha · extinguished on 16 August 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)
14 Aug	18.6 °C	50 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
15 Aug	19.1 °C	42 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
16 Aug after	14.4 °C	60 %	50 km/h	1.6 mm	Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Aug 2022

After · 22 Aug 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 15 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak13 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1020 µg/m³

Optical depth0.21

12131415161718

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 · 23Every 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 Vila Real fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 14 August 2022 and 15 August 2022: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2022 at 22:37 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Campeã (73 ha, 3.0 %); Ansiães (30 ha, 1.1 %); Fontes (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.7 km of Campeã. 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 19.1 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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

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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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