Fire atlas
Fires in Portugal
Satellite-detected fires in Portugal right now, plus five years of NASA FIRMS archive: 54,242 detections, 5,598 distinct fires, season and worst years by region.
Fires burning now in Portugal
Reading the latest satellite pass…
Window: last 24 hours, NASA FIRMS
See it on the mapFive years of archive
2020 to 2026 · through 2026-07-31
The years up to 2024 come from NASA’s finalized yearly archives. What follows, through 2026-07-31, comes from its near-real-time interface: 2026 is therefore a partial year, and its most recent weeks have not yet received the classification that removes volcanoes, flares and industrial sources. A very recent fire counts here, with a little more noise around it.
- Satellite detections
- 54,242
- Distinct fires
- 5,598
- Busiest month
- August
- Worst year
- 2025
- Strongest signal
- 6,102 MW
- Seen at night
- 52.5%
- Detections per 1,000 km²
- 590.4
Detections per year
| Year | Detections |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 4,494 |
| 2021 | 3,084 |
| 2022 | 6,707 |
| 2023 | 3,484 |
| 2024 | 14,453 |
| 2025 | 17,282 |
| 2026 | 4,738 |
The season
Share of detections by month, over the five years together.
| Month | Detections |
|---|---|
| Jan | 1,671 |
| Feb | 1,851 |
| Mar | 2,852 |
| Apr | 1,749 |
| May | 666 |
| Jun | 670 |
| Jul | 8,522 |
| Aug | 19,103 |
| Sep | 14,953 |
| Oct | 1,173 |
| Nov | 773 |
| Dec | 259 |
The most affected areas
| Area | Detections |
|---|---|
| Norte | 25,567 |
| Centro (PT) | 22,153 |
| Alentejo | 2,712 |
| Algarve | 1,409 |
| Oeste e Vale do Tejo | 1,028 |
| Região Autónoma da Madeira | 833 |
| Península de Setúbal | 259 |
| Grande Lisboa | 207 |
| Região Autónoma dos Açores | 74 |
The season is not the same everywhere
Each row is scaled to its own peak, so the comparison is between calendars rather than volumes. A row lighting up in summer is a forest-fire regime; a row lighting up in late winter signals agricultural burning.
| Area | Detections |
|---|---|
| Norte | Jan: 1,265 · Feb: 1,276 · Mar: 2,155 · Apr: 1,352 · May: 291 · Jun: 200 · Jul: 4,587 · Aug: 6,506 · Sep: 7,354 · Oct: 287 · Nov: 208 · Dec: 86 |
| Centro (PT) | Jan: 214 · Feb: 170 · Mar: 369 · Apr: 127 · May: 77 · Jun: 52 · Jul: 2,950 · Aug: 10,632 · Sep: 7,176 · Oct: 223 · Nov: 129 · Dec: 34 |
| Alentejo | Jan: 128 · Feb: 219 · Mar: 181 · Apr: 170 · May: 152 · Jun: 162 · Jul: 374 · Aug: 553 · Sep: 66 · Oct: 309 · Nov: 307 · Dec: 91 |
| Algarve | Jan: 16 · Feb: 47 · Mar: 60 · Apr: 29 · May: 29 · Jun: 141 · Jul: 216 · Aug: 466 · Sep: 249 · Oct: 88 · Nov: 53 · Dec: 15 |
| Oeste e Vale do Tejo | Jan: 29 · Feb: 31 · Mar: 47 · Apr: 44 · May: 40 · Jun: 50 · Jul: 249 · Aug: 351 · Sep: 30 · Oct: 86 · Nov: 54 · Dec: 17 |
| Região Autónoma da Madeira | Jan: 2 · Feb: 83 · Mar: 20 · Apr: 12 · May: 8 · Jun: 0 · Jul: 20 · Aug: 558 · Sep: 13 · Oct: 113 · Nov: 1 · Dec: 3 |
| Península de Setúbal | Jan: 10 · Feb: 18 · Mar: 6 · Apr: 8 · May: 22 · Jun: 46 · Jul: 39 · Aug: 7 · Sep: 36 · Oct: 48 · Nov: 14 · Dec: 5 |
| Grande Lisboa | Jan: 4 · Feb: 4 · Mar: 8 · Apr: 3 · May: 37 · Jun: 14 · Jul: 82 · Aug: 22 · Sep: 20 · Oct: 7 · Nov: 2 · Dec: 4 |
Regions
| Area | Detections |
|---|---|
| Norte | 25,567 |
| Centro (PT) | 22,153 |
| Alentejo | 2,712 |
| Algarve | 1,409 |
| Oeste e Vale do Tejo | 1,028 |
| Região Autónoma da Madeira | 833 |
| Península de Setúbal | 259 |
| Grande Lisboa | 207 |
| Região Autónoma dos Açores | 74 |
The largest recorded fires
The largest fires recorded here over five years — when each was first seen from orbit, and where.
6,010 detections · 100.8 km across · 5,185 MW
5,322 detections · 55.7 km across · 2,868 MW
3,228 detections · 61.2 km across · 6,102 MW
2,037 detections · 33.3 km across · 4,648 MW
1,649 detections · 57.1 km across · 1,649 MW
A first detection is not an ignition. A polar satellite passes only a few times a day, so a fire is seen on the next overpass — sometimes hours after it started, in a pixel about 375 m across. The point given is where it was first seen, not where it began. The span is the straight-line distance between detections: a floor on how far the fire reached, never a burned area. The named municipality is the one nearest the centre of the detections.
Aerial response in Portugal
31 verified aircraft in the catalog, tracked over ADS-B when they transmit.
See the Portugal registerThe questions people ask
- Where are the wildfires in Portugal today?
- The region table below shows, for each of them, the satellite detections from the last 24 hours. Open a region to go down to the province, or go straight to the map, which shows every detection point with its time and its power.
- Which regions of Portugal burn the most?
- The ranking below answers directly: regions are sorted by satellite detections over five years, most affected first. Each row leads to a page detailing its season, its worst years and its largest fires.
- When is the fire season in Portugal?
- Over five years, August is the month with the most detections in Portugal. But a national average hides opposite regimes: the Mediterranean coast burns in summer, while some inland regions peak in late winter because of agricultural burning.
- Can this map replace an official alert?
- No. Fire Maps shows observations and models, with their timestamps and their limits; it replaces neither the authorities, nor official alerts, nor incident command. In immediate danger, call the emergency services and follow official instructions.
How to read this page
A detection is not a fire. It is a pixel the satellite saw radiating like fire. One fire lights several pixels and comes back on every overpass: the unit counted here is evidence of heat, not the incident. That is why the page also gives a count of distinct fires, obtained by chaining detections that are close in space and in time.
The archive has gaps, and they are not random. A polar satellite passes a few times a day; under cloud it sees nothing; a fire smaller than the pixel can go unnoticed; a fire smouldering under canopy radiates little. An area with no detection is an area where nothing was seen — which is not the same as an area where nothing burned.
Two filters were applied, and this is what they removed. First NASA's own classification: 1,314 rows flagged as volcano, fixed ground source or offshore flare were discarded. Then persistence: 26 cells of about 500 metres lit in six different months across at least three distinct years behave like an industrial installation rather than a season; their 380 detections were removed.
Not everything that burns is a wildfire. Stubble burning, pastoral burning and the disposal of agricultural residue all produce perfectly real detections, often outside the summer season. A February or March peak on this page is almost always that.
The administrative outlines are generalized to a few hundred metres. A detection falling right on a boundary may therefore be counted on the neighbouring side. For a count of hot pixels the difference is immaterial; for a question of jurisdiction, use the official source.
Data sources
Archive built on July 31, 2026, covering 2020 to 2026.