Moimenta e Montouto fire, 22 March 2019 Moimenta e Montouto
The fire started on 22 March 2019 in Moimenta e Montouto, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 124 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Vinhais since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 41 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 124ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 22 Mar 2019 – 25 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- freguesias
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 40MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
124 ha reached on 22 Mar2.9 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland43 %
- Broadleaved forest40 %
- Other natural land16 %
- Agricultural areas0.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Montesinho / Nogueira PTCON0002 · PTZPE0003
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.
Several official records match this area
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 73 ha (the satellite measured 124 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Vinhais Moimenta 22 March 2019 · 12:11 33 ha · extinguished on 22 March 2019 · cause: arson
- 2 Vinhais Moimenta 25 March 2019 · 16:26 40 ha · extinguished on 25 March 2019 · cause: arson
Total according to ICNF: 73 ha, 58 % of the 124 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 15.4 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Mar | 17.8 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 24 Mar | 19.8 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 25 Mar | 18.8 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 26 Mar after | 17.9 °C | 13 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 27 Mar after | 19.3 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 Mar after | 18.5 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 29 Mar after | 17.0 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 30 Mar after | 16.2 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 6 |
| 31 Mar after | 16.3 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 7 |
| 1 Apr after | 16.7 °C | 47 % | 25 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 2 Apr after | 16.3 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 24 March 2019 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 4Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Moimenta e Montouto fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 March 2019 to 25 March 2019 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 March 2019 to 23 March 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 124 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Moimenta e Montouto (124 ha, 2.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Moimenta e Montouto and came within 4.2 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 17.8 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
- 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 ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Matched to the official record from ICNF.
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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 March 2019 to 23 March 2019. 4 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 73 official ha against 124 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- 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.