Vinhais fire, March 2019 Paçó, Vinhais
The fire started on 24 March 2019 in Paçó, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 107 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 March 2019 at 15:02 and declared extinguished on 24 March 2019.
It is the 10th largest in Vinhais since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 45 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.
Compare with…
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 107ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 24 Mar 2019 – 24 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 24 Mar
- 2019
- Danger at start
- 10
- Low · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 100%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
61 ha3.7 %
-
Vinhais 2,185 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the centre47 ha1.5 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland100 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Montesinho / Nogueira PTCON0002 · PTZPE0003
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 24 March 2019 and burned 108 ha (the satellite measured 107 ha).
- Vinhais Paçó 24 March 2019 · 15:02 108 ha · extinguished on 24 March 2019 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Mar | 19.0 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 25 Mar after | 17.8 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 26 Mar after | 17.0 °C | 10 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Mar after | 18.1 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Mar after | 17.2 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Mar after | 16.3 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 30 Mar after | 15.7 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 31 Mar after | 15.9 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 1 Apr after | 15.9 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 7 |
| 2 Apr after | 16.0 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 3 Apr after | 8.4 °C | 38 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
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 24 March 2019 the air beside the fire reached 15 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vinhais fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 March 2019 and 24 March 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 24 March 2019 at 15:02 and declared extinguished on 24 March 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 107 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paçó (61 ha, 3.7 %); Vinhais (47 ha, 1.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Paçó and came within 3.0 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 19.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, 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 ›
- 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 108 official ha against 107 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.