Castelo de Vide fire, June 2026 Santa Maria da Devesa
The fire started on 19 June 2026 in Santa Maria da Devesa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 294 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 June 2026 at 17:24 and declared extinguished on 17 June 2026.
Number 30 in Portugal in 2026, of 86.
The power measured by the satellite is low (6.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 294ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 1day
- 19 Jun 2026 – 19 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- freguesias
- Started on
- 19 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 6 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 6MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
19 Jun 2026 · 6 MW · 1
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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 24 Jun.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
294 ha reached on 19 Jun5.2 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub73 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland12 %
- Agricultural areas12 %
- Other natural land2.4 %
- Broadleaved forest0.7 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC São Mamede PTCON0007
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 17 June 2026 and burned 290 ha (the satellite measured 294 ha).
- Castelo de Vide Santa Maria da Devesa 17 June 2026 · 17:24 290 ha · extinguished on 17 June 2026 · cause: natural (lightning)
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jun | 33.4 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Jun after | 35.7 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Jun after | 37.9 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jun after | 34.0 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Jun after | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Jun after | 31.1 °C | 32 % | 47 km/h | 1.3 mm | High 26 |
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 22 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily 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 · 1Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 884 haPortalegre São João BaptistaAugust 2025 · 2 days · 5 km away
- 1,037 haNisa Espírito Santo, Nossa Senhora da Graça e São SimãoJuly 2025 · 2 days · 24 km away
- 4,718 haCastelo Branco Santo André das Tojeiras23 July 2017 · 6 days · 35 km away
- 1,316 haCastelo Branco Monforte da Beira26 July 2016 · 2 days · 38 km away
- 809 haAlburquerqueAugust 2021 · 2 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Castelo de Vide fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (19 June 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 19 June 2026 (1 day from 19 June 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 June 2026 at 17:24 and declared extinguished on 17 June 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 294 hectares (2.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Santa Maria da Devesa (294 ha, 5.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Santa Maria da Devesa and came within 0.8 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 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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 · 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.
- The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 290 official ha against 294 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.