Fires in Portugal

Posted by justaguyfromnj2000 on 09/19/24 03:30 PM

Hey, any current info on how the fires are effecting travel in north Portugal? I am landing in Porto on 9/26 planning on driving up the coast to Spain. Then, I have reservations in Guimaraes and Pinhao early october.

Thanks

Posted by Elizabeth formerly Bets

L'Occitanie, France

09/19/24 05:32 PM

10515 posts

Let's bump this up.
Anyone on the ground who could give us an update? We're seeing reports of a very serious situation. The the news here in France covers it every evening. I feel so sorry for all those people loosing everything.
How are you and people you know, Portugal regulars?

Posted by valadelphia

09/19/24 08:06 PM

4772 posts

FYI, if you go to Google and enter "map of fires in Portugal" you can see exact locations.
I'd also go a general search for Portugal news. This one had the most info of the ones I looked at:
https://www.portugalresident.com/

The stunning thing is that arson is suspected for some of these--such a horrible crime.
Take care!

Posted by kathrynj

Cascais, Portugal

09/20/24 07:53 AM

1768 posts

It looks like conditions have improved significantly over the last 24 hours. It has cooled off, the humidity is higher and rain is forecast for the next couple of days, at least here in the Lisbon region. I will search a bit more and post more as I get the information during the day.

I know the roads were open and trains were running between Lisbon and Porto yesterday.

Way too early to know anything about early October. These recent horrible fires erupted very quickly after a summer with fewer fires than previous years.

New info - Sintra and the Sintra hills roads have reopened so all is good in the Lisbon and Cascais areas. From everything I read, there are very few fires remaining today. However, heavy rain is forecast for several of the areas that have burned. So, run off may be problematic.

The weather forecast is for cooler weather for the next week with rain chances a couple of times. So, we should be good going forward unless we have an unexpected heat wave.

FYI - for those of you who use Facebook, a great resource we use here is Safe Communities Portugal. It’s an English site and does a great job during emergencies.