The interior of the North and Center of mainland Portugal is today at maximum risk of fire, according to the Instituto do Mar e da Atmosfera, on the second and last day of the alert situation decreed by the Government.
The alert situation throughout the continental territory remains in effect until the end of today and arose following the activation of the special red alert status for the districts of Bragança, Guarda, Vila Real, Beja, Castelo Branco, Faro and Viseu .
On special orange level alert are the districts Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Évora, Leiria, Portalegre, Porto, Santarém and Viana do Castelo and on a yellow level those of Lisbon and Setúbal.
The declaration of an alert situation implies an increase in the level of readiness and operational response by GNR and PSP, medical emergency teams, public health and psychosocial support and the permanent mobilization of teams of forest sappers and the National Body of Forest Agents and Nature Watchers.
In an alert situation, fires and the use of fireworks or other pyrotechnic devices are prohibited and access, circulation and permanence in forest spaces “previously defined in the Municipal Plans for the Defense of the Forest Against Fires” is prohibited.
Forestry and rural work with electrical equipment in spaces is also not allowed, such as motor riders, cutters, shredders and machines with blades or front shovels.
As for the fire risk defined by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), it is today the maximum in almost one hundred municipalities in the districts of Braga, Porto, Viana do Castelo, Bragança, Guarda, Castelo Branco, Viseu, Coimbra, Santarém and Portalegre.
At very high risk are about 60 municipalities in the districts of Viana do Castelo, Braga, Porto, Vila Real, Viseu, Coimbra, Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria, Santarém, Castelo Branco, Portalegre and Faro.
Already at high risk of fire, IPMA placed almost the entire region of Alentejo and part of the Algarve, as well as about three dozen municipalities in the districts of Lisbon, Santarém, Leiria, Aveiro, Viseu, Porto and Viana do Castelo.
The fire risk defined by the IPMA is calculated from air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and amount of precipitation in the last 24 hours. It has five levels, ranging from reduced to maximum.
The IPMA forecasts today a small drop in maximum temperature and cloudiness in the coastal strip.
The maximum temperatures will vary between 23º (Porto and Aveiro) and 37º (Bragança, Castelo Branco and Évora) and the minimum between 15º (Braga) and 22º (Portalegre and Faro).
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