Vinhais fire, August 2026 Soeira, Fresulfe e Mofreita, Travanca e Santa Cruz, Moimenta e Montouto
The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Soeira, Fresulfe e Mofreita, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,042 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 15 August 2026 at 04:36 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2026.
It is the 2th largest in Vinhais since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 5 in Portugal in 2026, of 86.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 2,042ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 10days
- 15 Aug 2026 – 24 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- freguesias
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 31
- in a single hotspot: 275 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 225MW
- 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 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 25 Aug.
This area had burned before
6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 108 ha in 2019, 1 ha in 2021, 2 ha in 2024, 6 ha in 2025.
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
-
841 ha reached on 15 Aug18 %
-
Travanca e Santa Cruz 146 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre650 ha reached on 16 Aug28 %
-
Moimenta e Montouto 219 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the centre462 ha reached on 15 Aug11 %
-
Tuizelo 296 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the centre77 ha2.5 %
-
Vilar de Ossos 222 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the centre1 ha0.0 %
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 woodland58 %
- Coniferous forest14 %
- Agricultural areas11 %
- Broadleaved forest7.9 %
- Other natural land6.3 %
- Mixed forest1.8 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable 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
Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 2,135 ha (the satellite measured 2,042 ha).
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Vinhais Moimenta 15 August 2026 · 04:36 2,120 ha · extinguished on 15 August 2026 · cause: arson
- 2 Vinhais Montouto 23 August 2026 · 21:18 14 ha · extinguished on 24 August 2026 · cause: arson
Total according to ICNF: 2,135 ha, 105 % of the 2,042 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 29.5 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Aug | 29.8 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 4.6 mm | Low 5 |
| 17 Aug | 31.3 °C | 32 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 18 Aug | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Aug | 29.8 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Aug | 23.5 °C | 57 % | 37 km/h | 4.8 mm | Very low 5 |
| 21 Aug | 23.9 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 22 Aug | 25.9 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Aug | 25.5 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Aug | 17.7 °C | 57 % | 59 km/h | 28.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 25 Aug after | 19.3 °C | 65 % | 37 km/h | 4.4 mm | Very low 0 |
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 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 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 · 31Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vinhais fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (15 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 24 August 2026 (10 days from 15 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 15 August 2026 at 04:36 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,042 hectares (20.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Soeira, Fresulfe e Mofreita (841 ha, 18 %); Travanca e Santa Cruz (650 ha, 28 %); Moimenta e Montouto (462 ha, 11 %); Tuizelo (77 ha, 2.5 %); Vilar de Ossos (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 1.4 km of the centre of Travanca e Santa Cruz, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.
- 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. 31 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 2,135 official ha against 2,042 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.