How long did the Vinhais fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 18 June 2017 and 19 June 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 18 June 2017 at 15:03 and declared extinguished on 19 June 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 301 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rebordelo (185 ha, 8.8 %); Vale das Fontes (117 ha, 6.6 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Rebordelo. 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 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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 · 2017-06-18 → 2017-06-19

Vinhais fire, June 2017 Rebordelo, Vale das Fontes

Out · last detection 19 Jun 2017, 01:46 UTC

The fire started on 18 June 2017 in Rebordelo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 301 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 18 June 2017 at 15:03 and declared extinguished on 19 June 2017.

It is the 6th largest in Vinhais since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 119 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 301ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 18 Jun 2017 – 19 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 18 Jun; 2017
Heat detections: 4; in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 26MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jun19 Jun

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

35°high

36km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 25 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Rebordelo 1.6 km from the town where it started

185 ha reached on 19 Jun

8.8 %
Vale das Fontes 262 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town

117 ha

6.6 %

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

Other natural land79 %
Agricultural areas15 %
Scrub and transitional woodland6.6 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 18 June 2017 and burned 341 ha (the satellite measured 301 ha).

Vinhais Rebordelo 18 June 2017 · 15:03 341 ha · extinguished on 19 June 2017 · 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)
18 Jun	35.1 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
19 Jun	32.0 °C	27 %	36 km/h	1.2 mm	High 27
20 Jun after	32.8 °C	25 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
21 Jun after	33.5 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Jun after	30.2 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
23 Jun after	28.7 °C	31 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
24 Jun after	26.7 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
25 Jun after	26.1 °C	41 %	33 km/h	4.0 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Jun 2017

After · 26 Jun 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 22 June 2017 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1035 µg/m³

WHO 15

161718192021222324252627

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 · 4Every 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 Vinhais fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 18 June 2017 and 19 June 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 18 June 2017 at 15:03 and declared extinguished on 19 June 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 301 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rebordelo (185 ha, 8.8 %); Vale das Fontes (117 ha, 6.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.6 km of Rebordelo. 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 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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