Montalegre e Padroso fire, April 2026 Montalegre e Padroso
The fire started on 3 April 2026 in Montalegre e Padroso, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 246 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 4 April 2026 at 01:23 and declared extinguished on 4 April 2026.
It is the 20th largest in Montalegre since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 39 in Portugal in 2026, of 86.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 246ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 2days
- 3 Apr 2026 – 4 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- freguesias
- Started on
- 3 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 31
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 7
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 231MW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.0 mm on 7 Apr.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43 ha in 2016, 39 ha in 2018, 44 ha in 2020, 123 ha in 2022, 87 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 223 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
246 ha reached on 3 Apr7.6 %
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 land77 %
- Broadleaved forest23 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Serra do Gerês PTZPE0002
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 4 April 2026 and burned 247 ha (the satellite measured 246 ha).
- Montalegre Padroso 4 April 2026 · 01:23 247 ha · extinguished on 4 April 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Apr | 17.4 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 4 Apr | 19.3 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 5 Apr after | 20.6 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 6 Apr after | 22.0 °C | 15 % | 54 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Apr after | 13.9 °C | 59 % | 80 km/h | 9.0 mm | Very low 0 |
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 6 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 111 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 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 · 31Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,240 haMuíñosOctober 2017 · 2 days · 17 km away
- 24,471 haMonterreiAugust 2025 · 8 days · 21 km away
- 3,493 haVilarelho Da RaiaAugust 2025 · 2 days · 26 km away
- 3,127 haChaves BusteloJuly 2022 · 5 days · 27 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Montalegre e Padroso fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (3 April 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 4 April 2026 (2 days from 3 April 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 4 April 2026 at 01:23 and declared extinguished on 4 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 246 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Montalegre e Padroso (246 ha, 7.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Montalegre e Padroso and came within 4.1 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 17.4 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 7, 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.
- 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. 31 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 247 official ha against 246 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.