How long did the Melgaço fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 12 September 2020 and 12 September 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 September 2020 at 02:55 and declared extinguished on 12 September 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Penso (67 ha, 7.5 %); Cousso (36 ha, 5.1 %); Paderne (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire reached the centre of Cousso: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2020-09-12 → 2020-09-12

Melgaço fire, September 2020 Penso, Cousso, Paderne

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2020, 14:07 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2020 in Penso, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 103 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 September 2020 at 02:55 and declared extinguished on 12 September 2020.

Number 66 in Portugal in 2020, of 67.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Monção · 2017 As Neves · 2017 Arcos de Valdevez · 2016 Ponte da Barca · 2025

Burnt area: 103ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 12 Sept 2020 – 12 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 12 Sept; 2020
Heat detections: 10; in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 226MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12 Sept 2020 · 226 MW · 10

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

28km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.2 mm on 14 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Penso 445 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the centre where it started

67 ha reached on 12 Sept

7.5 %
Cousso 239 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

36 ha reached on 12 Sept

5.1 %
Paderne 1.8 km from the centre

0 ha

0.0 %

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 land66 %
Scrub and transitional woodland28 %
Coniferous forest4.8 %
Mixed forest1.0 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 12 September 2020 and burned 91 ha (the satellite measured 103 ha).

Melgaço Penso 12 September 2020 · 02:55 91 ha · extinguished on 12 September 2020 · cause: negligence

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)
12 Sept	32.3 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Sept after	32.1 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
14 Sept after	23.2 °C	62 %	53 km/h	5.2 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Sept 2020

After · 19 Sept 2020

Before After

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 13 September 2020 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak21 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1029 µg/m³

WHO 15

101112131415

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 · 10Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Melgaço fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 12 September 2020 and 12 September 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 September 2020 at 02:55 and declared extinguished on 12 September 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Penso (67 ha, 7.5 %); Cousso (36 ha, 5.1 %); Paderne (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire reached the centre of Cousso: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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

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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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What really happened?

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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. 10 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 91 official ha against 103 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.

Where it burned