Castro Daire fire, November 2021 Pendilhe, Mões
The fire started on 18 November 2021 in Pendilhe, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 101 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 18 November 2021 at 03:16 and declared extinguished on 18 November 2021.
Number 30 in Portugal in 2021, of 30.
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- Burnt area
- 101ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 18 Nov 2021 – 19 Nov 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 18 Nov
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 119MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
18 Nov 2021 · 119 MW · 4
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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 25 Nov.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
53 ha reached on 18 Nov2.2 %
-
Mões 1,691 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the centre48 ha1.1 %
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
- Other natural land97 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland2.9 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 48 %
- LIC Rio Paiva PTCON0059
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 18 November 2021 and burned 98 ha (the satellite measured 101 ha).
- Castro Daire Mões 18 November 2021 · 03:16 98 ha · extinguished on 18 November 2021 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Nov | 11.5 °C | 48 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 19 Nov | 13.1 °C | 55 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 20 Nov after | 12.6 °C | 62 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 Nov after | 13.5 °C | 63 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 22 Nov after | 8.1 °C | 48 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Nov after | 7.9 °C | 71 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 24 Nov after | 9.3 °C | 65 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 25 Nov after | 7.0 °C | 78 % | 37 km/h | 1.3 mm | Very low 1 |
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 21 November 2021 the air beside the fire reached 16 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 · 4Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 35,523 haCastro Daire União das Freguesias de Picão e ErmidaSeptember 2024 · 10 days · 14 km away
- 78,447 haTrancoso Trancoso (São Pedro e Santa Maria) e Souto MaiorAugust 2025 · 11 days · 18 km away
- 8,554 haPenalva do Castelo Vila Cova do Covelo/MarecoSeptember 2024 · 5 days · 31 km away
- 19,317 haVouzela AlcofraOctober 2017 · 4 days · 33 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 38 km away
- 30,331 haArouca Santa EuláliaAugust 2016 · 9 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Castro Daire fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 November 2021 to 19 November 2021 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 November 2021 to 18 November 2021. According to ICNF, it was detected on 18 November 2021 at 03:16 and declared extinguished on 18 November 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 101 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pendilhe (53 ha, 2.2 %); Mões (48 ha, 1.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Pendilhe and came within 1.8 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 11.5 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very low.
- 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.
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How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 November 2021 to 18 November 2021. 4 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 98 official ha against 101 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.