Ribeira de Pena fire, August 2025
Alvadia, Alvão, União das Freguesias de Cerva e Limões
Out · last detection 10 Aug 2025, 13:49 UTC
The fire started on 7 August 2025 in Alvadia, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,430 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 freguesias. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2025 at 07:21 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2025.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
Weather during the fire
model
31.5°C · 27% RH
High of 31.5 °C and minimum humidity of 27% on 10 August 2025; gusts of 39 km/h on 10 August 2025.
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
· reconstructedofficial
Matched with the official ICNF record
Matches: 1,412 ha in the official record (records: 2).
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
32°high
39km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity
It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,131 ha in 2016, 26 ha in 2018, 14 ha in 2019, 33 ha in 2021, 53 ha in 2022, 13 ha in 2023, 20 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,216 ha that had burned before.
Burnt area inside each freguesia, 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.
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
Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,412 ha (the satellite measured 1,430 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.
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)
7 Aug
29.8 °C
30 %
22 km/h
0.0 mm
High 28
8 Aug
29.6 °C
36 %
29 km/h
0.4 mm
High 29
9 Aug
30.8 °C
29 %
24 km/h
0.0 mm
High 29
10 Aug
31.5 °C
27 %
39 km/h
0.0 mm
High 33
11 Aug after
30.8 °C
26 %
22 km/h
0.0 mm
High 36
12 Aug after
29.8 °C
31 %
43 km/h
0.5 mm
Very high 41
13 Aug after
28.3 °C
36 %
32 km/h
0.7 mm
High 27
14 Aug after
30.3 °C
30 %
34 km/h
0.0 mm
High 29
15 Aug after
29.4 °C
29 %
43 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 42
16 Aug after
29.9 °C
26 %
28 km/h
0.0 mm
High 31
17 Aug after
27.6 °C
29 %
40 km/h
0.0 mm
High 38
18 Aug after
23.9 °C
39 %
38 km/h
0.0 mm
High 32
19 Aug after
22.2 °C
43 %
40 km/h
0.0 mm
High 29
20 Aug after
21.9 °C
39 %
37 km/h
0.0 mm
High 30
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.1, a minimum humidity of 30% and 17 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 16.
FWI at the start28.1
Minimum humidity30 %
Days without rain17
this firechosen twinsrest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Ribeira de Pena fire, August 2025
1,430 ha4 daysFWI 28.1Min. humidity 30 %
Espadanedo, Edroso, Murçós e Soutelo Mourisco fire, August 2018
153 ha2 daysFWI 28.5Min. humidity 30 %70 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
It was 7.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 4 days, against 2 days.
Only 1 of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 21.8 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
39km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 10 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 16, with a median of 21.8 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 31 Jul 2025
After · 17 Aug 2025
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 12 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 43: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak81µg/m³
Days over the guideline9days
PM10154µg/m³
Optical depth0.64
WHO 15
5 Aug7 Aug9 Aug11 Aug13 Aug
GoodFairModeratePoorVery poorExtremely 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· 93Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.›
⬇ Download CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Copernicus dates it between 7 August 2025 and 10 August 2025: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2025 at 07:21 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,430 hectares (14.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which freguesias burned?
The fire entered 4 freguesias: Alvadia (795 ha, 23 %); Alvão (362 ha, 6.8 %); União das Freguesias de Cerva e Limões (274 ha, 4.6 %); Ribeira de Pena (Salvador) e Santo Aleixo de Além-Tâmega (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Alvadia and came within 0.6 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 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 16. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 195 ha; 6 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 1 of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 21.8 mm.
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.
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 errorHow we know this›
Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 93 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 1,412 official ha against 1,430 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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. Freguesia boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per freguesia is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.