Vinhais fire, 13 August 2025 Quirás e Pinheiro Novo
The fire started on 13 August 2025 in Quirás e Pinheiro Novo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 154 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2025 at 15:25 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2025.
It is the 7th largest in Vinhais since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 75 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 154ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 13 Aug 2025 – 13 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- freguesias
- Started on
- 13 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 63 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 63MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
13 Aug 2025 · 63 MW · 1
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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6 ha in 2017, 17 ha in 2020, 12 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 28 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
154 ha reached on 13 Aug2.6 %
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
- Agricultural areas80 %
- Other natural land15 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland5.2 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Montesinho / Nogueira PTCON0002 · PTZPE0003
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
According to ICNF, this fire started on 13 August 2025 and burned 146 ha (the satellite measured 154 ha).
- Vinhais Quirás 13 August 2025 · 15:25 146 ha · extinguished on 15 August 2025 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug | 30.6 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 1.9 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 14 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Aug after | 33.0 °C | 25 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 16 Aug after | 33.0 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 41 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Aug after | 24.0 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Aug after | 23.1 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Aug after | 26.1 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 22 Aug after | 27.9 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
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 16 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 214 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 64: 4.3 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 · 1Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,026 haA MezquitaAugust 2025 · 9 days · 15 km away
- 7,090 haVilariño de ConsoJuly 2022 · 10 days · 29 km away
- 3,634 haLazaAugust 2022 · 7 days · 29 km away
- 3,493 haVilarelho Da RaiaAugust 2025 · 2 days · 30 km away
- 13,065 haValpaços ErvõesJuly 2026 · 6 days · 32 km away
- 30,754 haChandrexa de QueixaAugust 2025 · 20 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vinhais fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2025 and 13 August 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2025 at 15:25 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 154 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Quirás e Pinheiro Novo (154 ha, 2.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Quirás e Pinheiro Novo and came within 2.4 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 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- 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. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 146 official ha against 154 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.