Ponte de Lima fire, August 2026 Geraz do Lima (Santa Maria, Santa Leocádia e Moreira) e Deão, Navió e Vitorino dos Piães, Facha
The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Facha, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 462 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 16 August 2026 at 14:26 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.
It is the 4th largest in Ponte de Lima since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 21 in Portugal in 2026, of 86.
- Burnt area
- 462ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 3days
- 16 Aug 2026 – 18 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 49
- in a single hotspot: 239 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 308MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.4 mm on 23 Aug.
This area had burned before
25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 23 ha in 2023, 98 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 115 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Geraz do Lima (Santa Maria, Santa Leocádia e Moreira) e Deão 3,046 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre234 ha reached on 16 Aug12 %
-
Navió e Vitorino dos Piães 1,544 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre117 ha reached on 18 Aug8.6 %
-
112 ha reached on 16 Aug7.3 %
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 woodland87 %
- Coniferous forest7.1 %
- Mixed forest4.1 %
- Agricultural areas1.5 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.71 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 476 ha (the satellite measured 462 ha).
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Ponte de Lima Facha 16 August 2026 · 14:26 470 ha · extinguished on 19 August 2026 · cause: rekindling
- 2 Viana do Castelo Geraz Lima (Santa Leocádia) 16 August 2026 · 23:10 6 ha · extinguished on 17 August 2026 · cause: negligence
Total according to ICNF: 476 ha, 103 % of the 462 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 27.0 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 17 Aug | 28.8 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Aug | 28.3 °C | 48 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 19 Aug after | 23.0 °C | 67 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 20 Aug after | 20.6 °C | 67 % | 47 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 21 Aug after | 21.2 °C | 52 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 22 Aug after | 21.1 °C | 63 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 Aug after | 21.8 °C | 58 % | 39 km/h | 14.4 mm | Very low 1 |
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 20 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 266 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 99: 6.6 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 · 49Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,698 haNogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de MurtedaAugust 2016 · 4 days · 10 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 2,004 haBarcelos Tamel (Santa Leocádia) e Vilar do MonteAugust 2016 · 5 days · 16 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 34 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ponte de Lima fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (16 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 18 August 2026 (3 days from 16 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 16 August 2026 at 14:26 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 462 hectares (4.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Geraz do Lima (Santa Maria, Santa Leocádia e Moreira) e Deão (234 ha, 12 %); Navió e Vitorino dos Piães (117 ha, 8.6 %); Facha (112 ha, 7.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Facha and came within 1.2 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 28.8 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- 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. 49 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 476 official ha against 462 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.