Torre de Moncorvo fire, August 2026 Vilarinho da Castanheira, Lousa, Seixo de Ansiães
The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Vilarinho da Castanheira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,403 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 August 2026 at 18:58 and declared extinguished on 20 August 2026.
It is the largest fire in Carrazeda de Ansiães since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 4 in Portugal in 2026, of 86.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 3,403ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 4days
- 16 Aug 2026 – 19 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- freguesias
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 224
- in a single hotspot: 121 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 728MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 24 Aug.
This area had burned before
14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 232 ha in 2016, 87 ha in 2017, 102 ha in 2019, 39 ha in 2022.
- 232 ha Torre de Moncorvo fire, September 2016 241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 102 ha Lousa fire, June 2019 104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 87 ha Torre de Moncorvo fire, June 2017 3,233 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha Carrazeda de Ansiães fire, August 2022 462 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
1,345 ha reached on 16 Aug48 %
-
Lousa fire reached the centre1,109 ha reached on 16 Aug33 %
-
Seixo de Ansiães 241 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre457 ha reached on 17 Aug19 %
-
Castedo 180 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre447 ha reached on 16 Aug25 %
-
Cabeça Boa 284 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre49 ha1.9 %
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 woodland38 %
- Agricultural areas37 %
- Mixed forest16 %
- Other natural land5.6 %
- Broadleaved forest2.9 %
- Coniferous forest0.7 %
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 0.47 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 15 August 2026 and burned 3,342 ha (the satellite measured 3,403 ha).
- Torre de Moncorvo Castedo 15 August 2026 · 18:58 3,342 ha · extinguished on 20 August 2026 · cause: natural (lightning)
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 | 32.5 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Aug | 34.7 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Aug | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Aug | 31.7 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Aug after | 26.2 °C | 48 % | 40 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 23 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Aug after | 21.1 °C | 65 % | 69 km/h | 5.5 mm | Low 6 |
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 19 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 245 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 108: 7.2 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 · 224Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 24 km away
- 5,163 haMirandela FrechasAugust 2025 · 3 days · 24 km away
- 5,710 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta LigaresAugust 2017 · 2 days · 28 km away
- 11,932 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta CarviçaisAugust 2025 · 4 days · 34 km away
- 7,641 haMurça TresminasJuly 2022 · 5 days · 39 km away
- 5,971 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta União das Freguesias de Lagoaça e FornosSeptember 2016 · 3 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Torre de Moncorvo 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 19 August 2026 (4 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, it was detected on 15 August 2026 at 18:58 and declared extinguished on 20 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,403 hectares (34.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Vilarinho da Castanheira (1,345 ha, 48 %); Lousa (1,109 ha, 33 %); Seixo de Ansiães (457 ha, 19 %); Castedo (447 ha, 25 %); Cabeça Boa (49 ha, 1.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Vilarinho da Castanheira and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
- 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. 224 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 3,342 official ha against 3,403 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.