How long did the Paços fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2025 and 14 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 367 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães (185 ha, 7.3 %); Paços (183 ha, 11 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães. 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 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2025-08-13 → 2025-08-14

Paços fire, August 2025 São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães, Paços

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2025, 12:53 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2025 in Paços, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 367 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 44 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 367ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 13 Aug 2025 – 14 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 13 Aug; 2025
Heat detections: 2; in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 18MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug14 Aug

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

35°high

32km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 36 ha in 2017, 4 ha in 2023.

36 ha Abaças fire, June 2017 207 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães 948 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town

185 ha

7.3 %
Paços 676 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town where it started

183 ha reached on 13 Aug

11 %

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

Agricultural areas53 %
Coniferous forest22 %
Other natural land13 %
Scrub and transitional woodland12 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

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)
13 Aug	32.2 °C	35 %	30 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 18
14 Aug	35.0 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
15 Aug after	34.6 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Aug after	34.6 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Aug after	32.3 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
18 Aug after	27.7 °C	38 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
19 Aug after	26.0 °C	42 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
20 Aug after	25.4 °C	39 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
21 Aug after	26.9 °C	34 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
22 Aug after	28.7 °C	32 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Aug after	30.0 °C	31 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
24 Aug after	29.7 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Aug 2025

After · 21 Aug 2025

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 15 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak66 µg/m³

Days over the guideline6 days

PM10113 µg/m³

Optical depth1.50

WHO 15

11121314151617

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 2Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Paços fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2025 and 14 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 367 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães (185 ha, 7.3 %); Paços (183 ha, 11 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães. 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 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned