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PT · Portugal ·

Mirandela fire, September 2026 Freixeda e Vila Verde, Cedães, Caravelas

Out · last measured on 15 Sept 2026

The fire started on 15 September 2026 in Freixeda e Vila Verde, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 451 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 freguesias. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 September 2026 at 14:11 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2026.

Number 22 in Portugal in 2026, of 87.

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
451ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
15 Sept 2026 – 15 Sept 2026
Freguesias hit
3
freguesias
Started on
15 Sept
2026
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
41km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16 ha in 2025.

What happened to each freguesia

  1. Freixeda e Vila Verde 137 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started
    393 ha
    19 %
  2. Cedães 270 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre
    46 ha
    1.8 %
  3. Caravelas 152 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the centre
    13 ha
    1.0 %

Burnt area inside each freguesia, 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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland52 %
  • Other natural land28 %
  • Broadleaved forest15 %
  • Agricultural areas5.4 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 15 September 2026 and burned 471 ha (the satellite measured 451 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)
15 Sept 33.0 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept after 27.3 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Sept after 25.6 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Sept after 27.0 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept after 30.2 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Sept after 32.9 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Sept after 33.4 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Sept after 33.5 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Sept after 33.6 °C 17 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Sept after 33.2 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Sept after 31.0 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 32.9, a minimum humidity of 23% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 39.

FWI at the start 32.9
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 6
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Vila Flor fire, July 2020
210 ha 2 days FWI 33.5 Min. humidity 23 % 19 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
354 ha
median area
23 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 24 of 39 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (451 ha against a median of 354 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 2 days.

In 15 of 39, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 15 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 24 of 39, with a median of 2.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2026
After · 22 Sept 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 15 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 10 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak10 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1013 µg/m³
Optical depth0.23
13 Sept15 Sept17 Sept19 Sept
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 Mirandela fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 September 2026 and 15 September 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 September 2026 at 14:11 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 451 hectares (4.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which freguesias burned?
The fire entered 3 freguesias: Freixeda e Vila Verde (393 ha, 19 %); Cedães (46 ha, 1.8 %); Caravelas (13 ha, 1.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Freixeda e Vila Verde and reached its centre: 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 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 39. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 354 ha; 23 % went past 1,000 ha. In 15 of 39, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

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.

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
What do you think is wrong?

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: 471 official ha against 451 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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. Freguesia boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per freguesia is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.