Cinfães fire, 7 July 2026 Tendais, Cinfães
The fire started on 7 July 2026 in Tendais, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 140 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2026 at 01:47 and declared extinguished on 8 July 2026.
It is the 24th largest in Cinfães since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 62 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 140ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 7 Jul 2026 – 7 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 7 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 8
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Energy released
- 45MW
- sum of detected power
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.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 124 ha in 2016, 24 ha in 2019, 26 ha in 2020, 42 ha in 2021, 28 ha in 2022, 13 ha in 2023, 109 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 138 ha that had burned before.
- 94 ha Tendais fire, September 2024 953 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 86 ha Cinfães fire, August 2016 1,737 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 42 ha Cinfães fire, January 2021 122 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 38 ha Cinfães fire, September 2016 514 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 25 ha Tendais fire, October 2020 172 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15 ha Nespereira fire, January 2024 467 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
110 ha reached on 7 Jul3.4 %
-
Cinfães 3,080 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town30 ha reached on 7 Jul1.2 %
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 woodland49 %
- Other natural land26 %
- Agricultural areas25 %
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 7 July 2026 and burned 167 ha (the satellite measured 140 ha).
- Cinfães Cinfães 7 July 2026 · 01:47 167 ha · extinguished on 8 July 2026 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jul after | 15.8 °C | 69 % | 3 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 9 Jul after | 29.8 °C | 23 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 10 Jul after | 29.2 °C | 27 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 11 Jul after | 34.7 °C | 16 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Jul after | 25.0 °C | 37 % | 18 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 13 Jul after | 25.0 °C | 42 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 14 Jul after | 28.4 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 5 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 110 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 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 · 8Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,555 haArouca RealJuly 2025 · 5 days · 15 km away
- 35,523 haCastro Daire União das Freguesias de Reriz e GafanhãoSeptember 2024 · 8 days · 18 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 19 km away
- 8,253 haChaveOctober 2017 · 2 days · 23 km away
- 30,331 haArouca RogeAugust 2016 · 9 days · 27 km away
- 78,447 haTrancoso LeomilAugust 2025 · 10 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cinfães fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 7 July 2026 and 7 July 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 7 July 2026 at 01:47 and declared extinguished on 8 July 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 140 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tendais (110 ha, 3.4 %); Cinfães (30 ha, 1.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.9 km of Tendais. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- 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
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.