Fourteen municipalities in the districts of Faro, Castelo Branco, Santarém and Portalegre present a very high risk of fire on Thursday, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
At very high risk are the municipalities of Vila de Rei, Vila Velha de Ródão Proença-a-Nova (Castelo Branco), Mação, Sardoal (Santarém), Gavião, Nisa (Portalegre), Aljezur, Silves, Loulé, São Brás de Alportel, Tavira, Castro Marim and Alcoutim (Faro).
IPMA has also placed several municipalities in the districts of Faro, Beja, Santarém, Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Leiria, Coimbra, Viseu, Guarda, Vila Real and Bragança at high risk of fire.
According to IPMA, at least until the weekend the risk of fire will remain very high in several municipalities on the continent.
This fire risk determined by IPMA has five levels, which go from reduced to maximum.
The calculations for this risk are obtained from air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and amount of rainfall in the last 24 hours.
Because of the hot weather, IPMA placed the districts of Braga, Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria Lisboa and Setúbal under yellow alert until 21:00 today due to the persistence of high maximum temperatures.
The yellow warning is issued by IPMA whenever there is a risk situation for certain weather dependent activities.
IPMA foresees for today on the mainland clear skies, temporarily cloudy during the afternoon, especially in the northern and central interior, where there is the possibility of showers and thunderstorms.
Weak to moderate wind from the east, rotating to the north from the afternoon, with gusts of up to 60 km per hour, in the highlands until late morning and from late afternoon.
The minimum temperatures will range from 17 degrees Celsius (Guarda, Bragança and Leiria) to 21 (Viseu and Porto) and the maximum from 28 (Guarda and Porto) to 35 (Setúbal and Santarém).
