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Valpaços fire, July 2026 Santa Valha, São Pedro Velho, Sonim e Barreiros

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2026, 14:44 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2026 in Bouça, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 13,065 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 20 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 July 2026 at 15:01 and declared extinguished on 2 August 2026.

Number 2 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.

Burnt area
13,065ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
28 Jul 2026 – 30 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
20
freguesias
Started on
28 Jul
2026
Heat detections
452
in a single hotspot: 285 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jul 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul30 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

293031

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
47km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 84 ha in 2016, 102 ha in 2017, 38 ha in 2018, 11 ha in 2021, 264 ha in 2022, 1 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Santa Valha 317 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    1,663 ha reached on 29 Jul
    61 %
  2. São Pedro Velho 281 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    1,639 ha reached on 30 Jul
    70 %
  3. Sonim e Barreiros 314 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,521 ha reached on 30 Jul
    85 %
  4. Vilarandelo 961 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    958 ha reached on 29 Jul
    48 %
  5. Aguieiras 246 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    919 ha reached on 30 Jul
    62 %
  6. Bouçoães 303 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    866 ha reached on 31 Jul
    33 %
  7. Bouça 182 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    787 ha reached on 30 Jul
    61 %
  8. Vale de Telhas 263 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    780 ha reached on 30 Jul
    52 %
  9. Fornos do Pinhal 320 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    744 ha reached on 29 Jul
    72 %
  10. Possacos 358 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town
    581 ha reached on 29 Jul
    45 %
  11. Fradizela 185 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    510 ha reached on 30 Jul
    40 %
  12. Lamalonga 339 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town
    400 ha reached on 31 Jul
    24 %
  13. Lebução, Fiães e Nozelos 548 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    385 ha reached on 30 Jul
    13 %
  14. Valpaços e Sanfins 4,661 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    343 ha reached on 29 Jul
    8.8 %
  15. Vale das Fontes 262 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    307 ha reached on 31 Jul
    17 %
  16. Ervões 534 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town where it started
    216 ha reached on 29 Jul
    9.8 %
  17. Vale de Salgueiro 344 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    185 ha reached on 1 Aug
    12 %
  18. Rebordelo 1.7 km from the town
    160 ha reached on 31 Jul
    7.6 %
  19. Torre de Dona Chama 920 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town
    111 ha reached on 31 Jul
    4.0 %
  20. Vale de Gouvinhas 234 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Agricultural areas46 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland37 %
  • Other natural land10 %
  • Mixed forest3.3 %
  • Coniferous forest2.1 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.5 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 28 July 2026 and burned 11,706 ha (the satellite measured 13,065 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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incêndio de Ervões · Fogo em Valpaços · Valpaços wildfire
Official area reported: 11,686 ha (the satellite measured 13,065 ha)
Declared extinguished: 2 August 2026

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
28 Jul 38.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Jul 36.6 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jul 33.2 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Jul after 31.8 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Aug after 35.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Aug after 32.4 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Aug after 29.9 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Aug after 29.2 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Aug after 31.9 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Aug after 34.3 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug after 34.1 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Aug after 32.6 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 48
9 Aug after 30.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Aug after 33.3 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Aug after 35.8 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Aug after 36.5 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2026
After · 6 Aug 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 1 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 511 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 220: 15 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak511 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10674 µg/m³
Optical depth1.52
26272829303112345
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)

Detections table · 452Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Valpaços fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 28 July 2026 and 30 July 2026: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 July 2026 at 15:01 and declared extinguished on 2 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 13,065 hectares (130.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 20 municipalities: Santa Valha (1,663 ha, 61 %); São Pedro Velho (1,639 ha, 70 %); Sonim e Barreiros (1,521 ha, 85 %); Vilarandelo (958 ha, 48 %); Aguieiras (919 ha, 62 %); Bouçoães (866 ha, 33 %); Bouça (787 ha, 61 %); Vale de Telhas (780 ha, 52 %); Fornos do Pinhal (744 ha, 72 %); Possacos (581 ha, 45 %); Fradizela (510 ha, 40 %); Lamalonga (400 ha, 24 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Sonim e Barreiros. 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 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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
What do you think is wrong?

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.