Monção fire, August 2026 Pias, Barroças e Taias, Abedim
The fire started on 18 August 2026 in Pias, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 178 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 18 August 2026 at 19:25 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.
It is the 7th largest in Monção since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 45 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.
The power measured by the satellite is low (14.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 178ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 2days
- 18 Aug 2026 – 19 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 9
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 78MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
19 Aug 2026 · 78 MW · 9
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 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 23 Aug.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 175 ha in 2016, 131 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 176 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
98 ha reached on 19 Aug8.7 %
-
Barroças e Taias 279 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre46 ha18 %
-
Abedim 191 inhabitants · fire reached the centre34 ha reached on 19 Aug4.4 %
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 woodland57 %
- Other natural land34 %
- Mixed forest5.0 %
- Agricultural areas3.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 18 August 2026 and burned 188 ha (the satellite measured 178 ha).
- Monção Pias 18 August 2026 · 19:25 188 ha · extinguished on 19 August 2026 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 37.2 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Aug | 26.0 °C | 65 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 20 Aug after | 20.9 °C | 66 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Aug after | 23.9 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Aug after | 25.0 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Aug after | 24.2 °C | 43 % | 50 km/h | 2.4 mm | Low 7 |
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 19 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 115 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 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 · 9Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 9 km away
- 3,333 haAs NevesOctober 2017 · 1 day · 17 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 21 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 30 km away
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Monção fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (18 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 19 August 2026 (2 days from 18 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate. According to ICNF, it was detected on 18 August 2026 at 19:25 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 178 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pias (98 ha, 8.7 %); Barroças e Taias (46 ha, 18 %); Abedim (34 ha, 4.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire reached the centre of Abedim: 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 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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 ›
- 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 9 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 188 official ha against 178 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.