Sabugal fire, July 2021 Sortelha, Casteleiro
The fire started on 16 July 2021 in Sortelha, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 447 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 July 2021 at 00:35 and declared extinguished on 18 July 2021.
It is the 8th largest in Sabugal since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 4 in Portugal in 2021, of 30.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 447ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 16 Jul 2021 – 16 Jul 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 16 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 16
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 200MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
16 Jul 2021 · 200 MW · 16
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 24 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.
What happened to each town
-
392 ha reached on 16 Jul9.9 %
-
Casteleiro 311 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the centre55 ha1.2 %
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
- Other natural land60 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland39 %
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 2021 and burned 438 ha (the satellite measured 447 ha).
- Sabugal Sortelha 16 July 2021 · 00:35 438 ha · extinguished on 18 July 2021 · cause: negligence
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 | 35.1 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Jul after | 35.2 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jul after | 34.4 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Jul after | 32.6 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jul after | 30.9 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Jul after | 32.6 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Jul after | 25.8 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Jul after | 26.3 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Jul after | 24.7 °C | 56 % | 30 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Jul after | 29.8 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
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 18 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 16Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 23,594 haSabugal Quintas de São BartolomeuAugust 2025 · 7 days · 11 km away
- 25,260 haSerra da Estrela SameiroAugust 2022 · 18 days · 23 km away
- 8,991 haGuarda Rochoso e Monte Margarida17 July 2017 · 3 days · 32 km away
- 5,226 haGuarda CerdeiraJuly 2026 · 3 days · 33 km away
- 6,531 haCastelo Branco Louriçal do CampoAugust 2017 · 4 days · 35 km away
- 19,125 haSeia Pamos Da SerraOctober 2017 · 8 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sabugal fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 16 July 2021 and 16 July 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 July 2021 at 00:35 and declared extinguished on 18 July 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 447 hectares (4.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sortelha (392 ha, 9.9 %); Casteleiro (55 ha, 1.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Sortelha and came within 1.9 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 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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 · 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 16 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 438 official ha against 447 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.