Aljustrel fire, June 2025 União das Freguesias de Aljustrel e Rio de Moinhos, Messejana
The fire started on 30 June 2025 in União das Freguesias de Aljustrel e Rio de Moinhos, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,114 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 30 June 2025 at 13:09 and declared extinguished on 30 June 2025.
Number 24 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 1,114ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 30 Jun 2025 – 1 Jul 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 30 Jun
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 120 MW
- Danger at start
- 81
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 120MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 47 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
União das Freguesias de Aljustrel e Rio de Moinhos 864 inhabitants · 7.9 km from the centre where it started1,043 ha reached on 30 Jun4.6 %
-
Messejana 811 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the centre72 ha reached on 30 Jun0.6 %
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
- Agricultural areas93 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland6.1 %
- Broadleaved forest0.6 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Castro Verde PTZPE0046
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 30 June 2025 and burned 1,096 ha (the satellite measured 1,114 ha).
- Aljustrel Aljustrel 30 June 2025 · 13:09 1,096 ha · extinguished on 30 June 2025 · cause: unknown
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jun | 42.8 °C | 10 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 1 Jul | 41.8 °C | 12 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 2 Jul after | 39.9 °C | 14 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 3 Jul after | 35.3 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 4 Jul after | 34.3 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Jul after | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Jul after | 36.3 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 Jul after | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Jul after | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Jul after | 32.9 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Jul after | 27.6 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
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 30 June 2025 the air beside the fire reached 13 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)
Detections table · 6Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aljustrel fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 June 2025 to 1 July 2025 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 June 2025 to 30 June 2025. According to ICNF, it was detected on 30 June 2025 at 13:09 and declared extinguished on 30 June 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,114 hectares (11.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Aljustrel e Rio de Moinhos (1,043 ha, 4.6 %); Messejana (72 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 4.4 km of the centre of Messejana, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 42.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 81, class Very extreme.
- 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 June 2025 to 30 June 2025. 6 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 1,096 official ha against 1,114 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.