Cinfães fire, August 2025 Cinfães
The fire started on 14 August 2025 in Cinfães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 167 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2025 at 18:17 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2025.
It is the 22th largest in Cinfães since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 71 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
The power measured by the satellite is low (28.9 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
- 167ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 14 Aug 2025 – 15 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- freguesias
- Started on
- 14 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 13
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 54MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
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
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 117 ha in 2016, 7 ha in 2020, 26 ha in 2023, 3 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 126 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
167 ha reached on 14 Aug6.6 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland72 %
- Agricultural areas13 %
- Mixed forest8.6 %
- Other natural land4.9 %
- Coniferous forest1.2 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Serra de Montemuro PTCON0025
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 13 August 2025 and burned 163 ha (the satellite measured 167 ha).
- Cinfães Cinfães 13 August 2025 · 18:17 163 ha · extinguished on 15 August 2025 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Aug | 33.7 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Aug | 31.3 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 47 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Aug after | 24.3 °C | 49 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Aug after | 24.4 °C | 47 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 23 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
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 16 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 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 · 13Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 16 km away
- 6,555 haArouca RealJuly 2025 · 5 days · 16 km away
- 35,523 haCastro Daire União das Freguesias de Picão e ErmidaSeptember 2024 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 8,253 haChaveOctober 2017 · 2 days · 23 km away
- 30,331 haArouca Santa EuláliaAugust 2016 · 9 days · 29 km away
- 78,447 haTrancoso Trancoso (São Pedro e Santa Maria) e Souto MaiorAugust 2025 · 11 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cinfães fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 14 August 2025 and 15 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2025 at 18:17 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 167 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cinfães (167 ha, 6.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.9 km of Cinfães. 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 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
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.
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. 13 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 163 official ha against 167 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.