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Proença-a-Nova fire, July 2026 São Pedro do Esteval, Proença a Nova e Peral

Out · last measured on 16 Jul 2026

The fire started on 16 July 2026 in Proença a Nova e Peral, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 240 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 July 2026 at 14:56 and declared extinguished on 16 July 2026.

Number 39 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
240ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
16 Jul 2026 – 16 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
2
freguesias
Started on
16 Jul
2026
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

32°high
22km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 208 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. São Pedro do Esteval 406 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town where it started
    137 ha
    2.0 %
  2. Proença a Nova e Peral 4,498 inhabitants · 6.4 km from the town
    103 ha
    0.6 %

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 woodland37 %
  • Mixed forest35 %
  • Agricultural areas20 %
  • Other natural land8.4 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 16 July 2026 and burned 226 ha (the satellite measured 240 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.

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 Jul 31.9 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Jul after 31.2 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Jul after 31.5 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Jul after 31.0 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Jul after 30.1 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Jul after 32.3 °C 20 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Jul after 33.8 °C 17 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jul after 33.0 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Jul after 28.6 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jul after 30.1 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jul after 35.2 °C 13 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2026
After · 23 Jul 2026

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 19 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 8 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak8 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1012 µg/m³
Optical depth0.16
141516171819
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Proença-a-Nova fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 16 July 2026 and 16 July 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 July 2026 at 14:56 and declared extinguished on 16 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 240 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: São Pedro do Esteval (137 ha, 2.0 %); Proença a Nova e Peral (103 ha, 0.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.1 km of São Pedro do Esteval. 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 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 22 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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

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
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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.