How long did the Beja fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 29 May 2025 and 29 May 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 May 2025 at 12:44 and declared extinguished on 29 May 2025.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 207 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Cabeça Gorda (207 ha, 2.6 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.5 km of Cabeça Gorda. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.

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.

PT · Portugal · 2025-05-29 → 2025-05-29

Beja fire, May 2025 Cabeça Gorda

Out · last detection 29 May 2025, 13:17 UTC

The fire started on 29 May 2025 in Cabeça Gorda, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 207 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 May 2025 at 12:44 and declared extinguished on 29 May 2025.

Number 60 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 207ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 29 May 2025 – 29 May 2025
Municipalities hit: 1; freguesias
Started on: 29 May; 2025
Heat detections: 5; in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 70MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 May29 May

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

37°high

31km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 30 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Cabeça Gorda 1,125 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town where it started

207 ha reached on 29 May

2.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

Agricultural areas82 %
Scrub and transitional woodland18 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 29 May 2025 and burned 206 ha (the satellite measured 207 ha).

Beja Cabeça Gorda 29 May 2025 · 12:44 206 ha · extinguished on 29 May 2025 · cause: negligence

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)
29 May	36.6 °C	20 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 May after	37.8 °C	19 %	27 km/h	1.3 mm	High 29

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 22 May 2025

After · 5 Jun 2025

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 30 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1074 µg/m³

Optical depth0.40

WHO 15

27282930311

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Beja fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 29 May 2025 and 29 May 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 May 2025 at 12:44 and declared extinguished on 29 May 2025.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 207 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Cabeça Gorda (207 ha, 2.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.5 km of Cabeça Gorda. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.

Where it burned