Castelo Branco fire, September 2024 São Vicente da Beira, Louriçal do Campo
The fire started on 16 September 2024 in São Vicente da Beira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 323 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 September 2024 at 21:52 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2024.
It is the 6th largest in Castelo Branco since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 43 in Portugal in 2024, of 69.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 323ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 16 Sept 2024 – 16 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 46
- in a single hotspot: 71 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 864MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
16 Sept 2024 · 864 MW · 46
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 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 20 Sept.
This area had burned before
44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 143 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
263 ha reached on 16 Sept2.6 %
-
Louriçal do Campo 557 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre60 ha reached on 16 Sept2.7 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland42 %
- Agricultural areas25 %
- Coniferous forest15 %
- Mixed forest14 %
- Broadleaved forest3.8 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 15 September 2024 and burned 315 ha (the satellite measured 323 ha).
- Castelo Branco Louriçal do Campo 15 September 2024 · 21:52 315 ha · extinguished on 16 September 2024 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sept | 31.4 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Sept after | 26.6 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Sept after | 24.8 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Sept after | 25.2 °C | 40 % | 29 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 22 |
| 20 Sept after | 21.7 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 7 |
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 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 20 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 · 46Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,531 haCastelo Branco Louriçal do CampoAugust 2017 · 4 days · 6 km away
- 68,190 haArganil Sobral de São MiguelAugust 2025 · 15 days · 15 km away
- 8,478 haCambasAugust 2017 · 5 days · 21 km away
- 15,536 haProença-a-Nova União das freguesias de Sobreira Formosa e Alvito da BeiraSeptember 2020 · 8 days · 27 km away
- 8,372 haPampilhosa da Serra Fajão-VidualOctober 2017 · 4 days · 34 km away
- 6,679 haCastelo Branco Montes da SenhoraAugust 2023 · 2 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Castelo Branco fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 16 September 2024 and 16 September 2024: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 September 2024 at 21:52 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 323 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: São Vicente da Beira (263 ha, 2.6 %); Louriçal do Campo (60 ha, 2.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in São Vicente da Beira and came within 1.3 km of its centre. 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 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very 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 · 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 46 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 315 official ha against 323 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.