Vila Real fire, 21 August 2022 Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã, São Tomé do Castelo e Justes, Borbela e Lamas de Olo
The fire started on 21 August 2022 in Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,850 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 7 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 August 2022 at 07:03 and declared extinguished on 26 August 2022.
It is the 2th largest in Vila Real since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 4 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 5,850ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 21 Aug 2022 – 26 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 7
- freguesias
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 269
- in a single hotspot: 376 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2.8GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 167 ha in 2016, 984 ha in 2017, 100 ha in 2019, 10 ha in 2020, 33 ha in 2021.
- 472 ha Ribeira de Pena fire, October 2017 2,117 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 190 ha Vila Real fire, January 2017 213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 166 ha Borbela e Lamas de Olo fire, January 2017 167 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 106 ha Vila Pouca de Aguiar fire, September 2016 866 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 95 ha Vila Real fire, August 2017 770 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 61 ha Vila Pouca de Aguiar fire, September 2016 663 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
2,264 ha reached on 21 Aug60 %
-
São Tomé do Castelo e Justes 1,066 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre1,658 ha reached on 21 Aug40 %
-
Borbela e Lamas de Olo 2,890 inhabitants · fire reached the centre1,531 ha reached on 21 Aug37 %
-
União das Freguesias de Mouçós e Lamares 3,182 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre248 ha reached on 22 Aug7.6 %
-
Telões 3.2 km from the centre128 ha2.8 %
-
Vila Marim 2.2 km from the centre25 ha reached on 22 Aug1.1 %
-
Alvadia 165 inhabitants · 3.7 km from the centre2 ha reached on 21 Aug0.1 %
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 land67 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland21 %
- Agricultural areas8.2 %
- Artificial surfaces2.6 %
- Mixed forest0.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 69 %
- 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 21 August 2022 and burned 5,546 ha (the satellite measured 5,850 ha).
- Vila Real Vilarinho de Samardã 21 August 2022 · 07:03 5,546 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.
Checked against the press
Checked on 30 September 2026We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Official area reported: 5,800 ha (the satellite measured 5,850 ha)
- Declared extinguished: 27 August 2022
Sources
- Incêndios. Um só fogo consumiu 5.800 dos 5.968 hectares ardidos em 2022 em Vila Real — Observador, 26 October 2022
- Incêndios. Um só fogo consumiu 5.800 dos 5.968 hectares ardidos em 2022 em Vila Real — RTP Notícias, 26 October 2022
- Autarca de Vila Real diz que fogo no Alvão é 'nova ignição' — RTP Notícias, 23 August 2022
Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 27.1 °C | 33 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Aug | 31.0 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Aug | 32.3 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Aug | 29.4 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 25 Aug | 29.8 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 26 Aug | 29.9 °C | 34 % | 52 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 47 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Aug after | 23.3 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Aug after | 23.2 °C | 41 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Sept after | 22.6 °C | 49 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Sept after | 21.6 °C | 49 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Sept after | 20.5 °C | 42 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
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 21 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 36 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 · 269Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,118 haVila Pouca de Aguiar Telões17 September 2024 · 3 days · 6 km away
- 6,087 haVila Real Vila Marim3 August 2025 · 13 days · 8 km away
- 2,869 haRibeira de Pena AlvãoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 11 km away
- 7,641 haMurça TresminasJuly 2022 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 25 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vila Real fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 August 2022 to 26 August 2022 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 August 2022 to 24 August 2022. According to ICNF, it was detected on 21 August 2022 at 07:03 and declared extinguished on 26 August 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,850 hectares (58.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 7 municipalities: Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã (2,264 ha, 60 %); São Tomé do Castelo e Justes (1,658 ha, 40 %); Borbela e Lamas de Olo (1,531 ha, 37 %); União das Freguesias de Mouçós e Lamares (248 ha, 7.6 %); Telões (128 ha, 2.8 %); Vila Marim (25 ha, 1.1 %); Alvadia (2 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 August 2022 to 24 August 2022. 269 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 5,546 official ha against 5,850 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Checked against news and agencies: 3 confirmed sources.
- 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.