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Monchique fire, August 2018 Monchique, Silves, Alferce

Out · last detection 10 Aug 2018, 03:09 UTC

The fire started on 3 August 2018 in Monchique, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 27,635 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 3 August 2018 at 13:32 and declared extinguished on 11 August 2018.

The largest in Portugal in 2018, of 23.

Burnt area
27,635ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
8days
3 Aug 2018 – 10 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
9
freguesias
Started on
3 Aug
2018
Heat detections
1,305
in a single hotspot: 336 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
27.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Aug10 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

345678910

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
62km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 398 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Monchique 4,373 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town where it started
    9,602 ha reached on 3 Aug
    60 %
  2. Silves 10,663 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    8,317 ha reached on 6 Aug
    47 %
  3. Alferce 391 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    7,584 ha reached on 6 Aug
    79 %
  4. São Bartolomeu de Messines 8,159 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the town
    1,220 ha reached on 9 Aug
    5.1 %
  5. São Marcos da Serra 1,113 inhabitants · 5.4 km from the town
    506 ha reached on 8 Aug
    3.0 %
  6. Portimão 49,237 inhabitants · 7.0 km from the town
    353 ha reached on 7 Aug
    4.7 %
  7. Saboia 922 inhabitants · 6.4 km from the town
    74 ha reached on 5 Aug
    0.5 %
  8. Mexilhoeira Grande 4,315 inhabitants · 8.3 km from the town
    25 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.3 %
  9. São Teotónio 8,701 inhabitants · 13.7 km from the town
    7 ha reached on 3 Aug
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Scrub and transitional woodland35 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub31 %
  • Broadleaved forest26 %
  • Agricultural areas6.3 %
  • Mixed forest1.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 73 %

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 3 August 2018 and burned 26,764 ha (the satellite measured 27,635 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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Grande incêndio de Monchique · Fogo de Monchique · Monchique wildfire
Official area reported: 26,885 ha (the satellite measured 27,635 ha)
Declared under control (not yet extinguished): 10 August 2018

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
3 Aug 37.6 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Aug 41.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Aug 39.9 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Aug 38.0 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Aug 31.3 °C 34 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Aug 26.5 °C 38 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Aug 28.3 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug 31.9 °C 21 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Aug after 32.1 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug after 33.1 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug after 29.7 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Aug after 28.9 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug after 28.8 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Aug after 28.6 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Aug after 31.2 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Aug after 32.6 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Aug after 33.6 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Aug after 33.4 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jul 2018
After · 17 Aug 2018

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 1,305Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Monchique fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 3 August 2018 and 10 August 2018: 8 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 3 August 2018 at 13:32 and declared extinguished on 11 August 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 27,635 hectares (276.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: Monchique (9,602 ha, 60 %); Silves (8,317 ha, 47 %); Alferce (7,584 ha, 79 %); São Bartolomeu de Messines (1,220 ha, 5.1 %); São Marcos da Serra (506 ha, 3.0 %); Portimão (353 ha, 4.7 %); Saboia (74 ha, 0.5 %); Mexilhoeira Grande (25 ha, 0.3 %); São Teotónio (7 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Silves. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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.