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Chaves fire, July 2026 Redondelo, Soutelo e Seara Velha, Sapiãos

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2026, 03:19 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2026 in Redondelo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,118 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 30 July 2026 at 13:52 and declared extinguished on 2 August 2026.

It is the 5th largest in Chaves since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 10 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.

Burnt area
1,118ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
30 Jul 2026 – 30 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
5
freguesias
Started on
30 Jul
2026
Heat detections
36
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
227MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jul 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul30 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

3031

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

31°high
48km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15 ha in 2021, 17 ha in 2022, 3 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

  1. Redondelo 455 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town where it started
    720 ha reached on 30 Jul
    38 %
  2. Soutelo e Seara Velha 461 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    348 ha reached on 31 Jul
    19 %
  3. Sapiãos 397 inhabitants · 5.3 km from the town
    33 ha
    1.6 %
  4. Curalha 416 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town
    16 ha
    2.1 %
  5. Ardãos e Bobadela 463 inhabitants · 4.0 km from the town
    2 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Other natural land38 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland30 %
  • Agricultural areas24 %
  • Mixed forest4.4 %
  • Coniferous forest3.7 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 30 July 2026 and burned 1,081 ha (the satellite measured 1,118 ha).

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 Jul 30.8 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul after 30.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Aug after 33.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Aug after 30.8 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Aug after 28.1 °C 37 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Aug after 27.9 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Aug after 30.6 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Aug after 33.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Aug after 32.7 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Aug after 31.4 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.6 mm High 37
9 Aug after 29.6 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2026
After · 6 Aug 2026

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 1 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak81 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM10122 µg/m³
Optical depth0.51
28293031123
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 · 36Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chaves fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 30 July 2026 and 30 July 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 30 July 2026 at 13:52 and declared extinguished on 2 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,118 hectares (11.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Redondelo (720 ha, 38 %); Soutelo e Seara Velha (348 ha, 19 %); Sapiãos (33 ha, 1.6 %); Curalha (16 ha, 2.1 %); Ardãos e Bobadela (2 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Soutelo e Seara Velha. 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 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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

Satellite cross-check

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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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.