This affects more than 80 municipalities in the districts of Bragança, Viseu, Guarda, Coimbra, Leiria, Castelo Branco, Santarém, Portalegre and Faro.

The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) has also placed almost all municipalities in all mainland districts at very high or high risk of wildfires.

According to the institute, wildfire risk will remain very high in some regions at least until Sunday.

IPMA determines wildfire risk in five levels, ranging from low to maximum. The calculations are based on air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and precipitation in the previous 24 hours.

Due to the hot weather, IPMA (Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere) has issued a yellow warning for the districts of Braga, Aveiro, Coimbra, Santarém, Viana do Castelo, Lisbon, Leiria and Porto until 6 pm on 22 September; Viseu, Évora, Castelo Branco and Portalegre until 6 pm on 23 September, and Bragança, Guarda and Vila Real until 5 am on 24 September.

The yellow warning is the least severe on a scale of three and is issued when there is a risk to certain weather-dependent activities.

On Monday, the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) warned of conditions favourable to rural fires in the coming days across the country, especially in the interior regions, and maintained readiness at level III.

“There will be strong winds; there is no night recovery, since the nights are quite hot and with low humidity, which makes it very difficult to extinguish the fires and contributes to them progressing faster,” said the deputy operations officer of Civil Protection, Carlos Mata.

In a press conference at the ANEPC headquarters in Carnaxide, Oeiras, Carlos Mata said the special readiness status of the Integrated System of Protection and Relief Operations therefore remains at level III throughout the country, even though the inland regions are the most vulnerable.

As an intermediate/high alert level, level III calls for reinforcing resources and enhancing the readiness of rescue and operational teams for imminent intervention or response to disaster situations, on a scale of four progressive levels.