Torre de Moncorvo fire, September 2019 Mós, Carviçais
The fire started on 12 September 2019 in Carviçais, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 128 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 11 September 2019 at 20:36 and declared extinguished on 12 September 2019.
It is the 12th largest in Torre de Moncorvo since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 39 in Portugal in 2019, of 52.
- Burnt area
- 128ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 12 Sept 2019 – 12 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 12 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 77MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
12 Sept 2019 · 77 MW · 6
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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 14 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Mós 5.1 km from the centre80 ha reached on 12 Sept1.4 %
-
48 ha reached on 12 Sept0.8 %
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 land88 %
- Agricultural areas12 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 11 September 2019 and burned 128 ha (the satellite measured 128 ha).
- Torre de Moncorvo Mós 11 September 2019 · 20:36 128 ha · extinguished on 12 September 2019 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Sept | 29.8 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 21 % | 58 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Sept after | 27.8 °C | 34 % | 45 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 24 |
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 15 September 2019 the air beside the fire reached 11 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 · 6Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,932 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta CarviçaisAugust 2025 · 4 days · 4 km away
- 5,710 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta LigaresAugust 2017 · 2 days · 8 km away
- 5,971 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta União das Freguesias de Lagoaça e FornosSeptember 2016 · 3 days · 13 km away
- 3,121 haTorre de Moncorvo Adeganha e Cardanha6 August 2020 · 3 days · 21 km away
- 3,233 haTorre de Moncorvo Cabeça BoaJune 2017 · 3 days · 26 km away
- 3,403 haTorre de Moncorvo Vilarinho da CastanheiraAugust 2026 · 4 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Torre de Moncorvo fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 12 September 2019 and 12 September 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 11 September 2019 at 20:36 and declared extinguished on 12 September 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 128 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mós (80 ha, 1.4 %); Carviçais (48 ha, 0.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Carviçais and came within 4.8 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 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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 · 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. 6 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 128 official ha against 128 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.