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Lamego fire, August 2026 Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca, Penude, Paus

Out · last measured on 17 Aug 2026

The fire started on 17 August 2026 in Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 176 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 August 2026 at 15:39 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.

Number 50 in Portugal in 2026, of 86.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Penude · 2016Resende · 2024São Martinho de Mouros · 2016Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca · 2016

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
176ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
17 Aug 2026 – 17 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
17 Aug
2026
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Natura 2000
85%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
38km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 19.1 mm on 23 Aug.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 105 ha in 2016, 19 ha in 2017, 21 ha in 2019, 2 ha in 2021, 6 ha in 2022, 80 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 158 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca 575 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre where it started
    139 ha
    6.9 %
  2. Penude 1,406 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the centre
    37 ha
    2.8 %
  3. Paus 421 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre
    1 ha
    0.1 %

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 land82 %
  • Agricultural areas18 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 85 %

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 August 2026 and burned 214 ha (the satellite measured 176 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)
17 Aug 34.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Aug after 35.8 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.9 mm Very high 40
19 Aug after 26.8 °C 44 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Aug after 21.4 °C 59 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Aug after 23.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Aug after 25.2 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Aug after 23.5 °C 39 % 66 km/h 19.1 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2026
After · 24 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 20 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1092 µg/m³
Optical depth0.76
15161718192021
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lamego fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 17 August 2026 and 17 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 17 August 2026 at 15:39 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 176 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca (139 ha, 6.9 %); Penude (37 ha, 2.8 %); Paus (1 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca 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 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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
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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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 214 official ha against 176 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.