Odemira fire, August 2023 São Teotónio, Odeceixe, Marmelete
The fire started on 5 August 2023 in São Teotónio, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 8,145 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 5 August 2023 at 14:49 and declared extinguished on 11 August 2023.
The largest in Portugal in 2023, of 38.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 8,145ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 9days
- 5 Aug 2023 – 13 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- freguesias
- Started on
- 5 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 468
- in a single hotspot: 424 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 4.7GW
- 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 44 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
5,991 ha reached on 6 Aug17 %
-
Odeceixe 1,055 inhabitants · fire reached the centre1,774 ha reached on 7 Aug42 %
-
Marmelete 698 inhabitants · 7.1 km from the centre389 ha reached on 8 Aug2.8 %
-
Aljezur 3,455 inhabitants · 8.6 km from the centre1 ha reached on 8 Aug0.0 %
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
- Broadleaved forest37 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland31 %
- Agricultural areas14 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub14 %
- Mixed forest4.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 79 %
- ZEPA + LIC Costa Sudoeste PTCON0012 · PTZPE0015
- ZEPA + LIC Monchique PTCON0037
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 5 August 2023 and burned 7,513 ha (the satellite measured 8,145 ha).
- Odemira São Teotónio 5 August 2023 · 14:49 7,513 ha · extinguished on 11 August 2023 · cause: unknown
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 30 September 2026We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Incêndio de Odemira · Incêndio de São Teotónio · Fogo de Odemira
- Official area reported: 7,513 ha (the satellite measured 8,145 ha)
Sources
- Incêndio de Odemira - Nota conjunta de Aljezur, Monchique e Odemira — Câmara Municipal de Odemira, 11 August 2023 · official source
- Incêndio em Beja, Odemira, São Teotónio — Fogos.pt (datos ANEPC/ICNF) · official source
- Incêndios de Odemira e Castelo Branco representam mais de metade da área ardida em 2023 — Observador, 17 August 2023
- Liveblog: incêndio de Odemira continua a mobilizar mais de mil bombeiros — Observador, 10 August 2023
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Aug | 33.4 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 6 Aug | 34.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Aug | 31.6 °C | 29 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Aug | 29.9 °C | 49 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Aug | 26.6 °C | 50 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Aug | 29.2 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Aug | 30.8 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 12 Aug | 30.0 °C | 44 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Aug | 25.0 °C | 51 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 50 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 53 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 55 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 51 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Aug after | 25.5 °C | 58 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 19 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 49 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Aug after | 30.8 °C | 43 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Aug after | 34.6 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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 7 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 39 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.6 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 · 468Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 940 haOdemira SaboiaAugust 2021 · 2 days · 17 km away
- 4,587 haMonchiqueSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 22 km away
- 2,121 haMonchique Mexilhoeira GrandeJuly 2021 · 2 days · 24 km away
- 27,635 haMonchiqueAugust 2018 · 8 days · 26 km away
- 2,332 haAljezur União das Freguesias de Bensafrim e Barão de São JoãoSeptember 2025 · 4 days · 29 km away
- 2,352 haAljezur Vila do Bispo e RaposeiraJune 2020 · 3 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Odemira fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 August 2023 to 13 August 2023 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 August 2023 to 10 August 2023. According to ICNF, it was detected on 5 August 2023 at 14:49 and declared extinguished on 11 August 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 8,145 hectares (81.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: São Teotónio (5,991 ha, 17 %); Odeceixe (1,774 ha, 42 %); Marmelete (389 ha, 2.8 %); Aljezur (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire reached the centre of Odeceixe: 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 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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 · 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.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 August 2023 to 10 August 2023. 468 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 7,513 official ha against 8,145 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
- 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.