TAPM (The Air Pollution Model) was applied to Madeira Island to simulate the behaviour of the plume of a municipal waste incinerator that was constructed in the southern slope of the island at an altitude of 1380 m. TAPM simulates very well the atmospheric flow that occurs around the island and inside the inner valleys under strong synoptic forcing. Validation tools reveal the good agreement between modelling results and meteorological data. Results obtained with the model show the importance of analysing the path of the plume emitted by the incinerator when designing monitoring stations layout.