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FR · 2021 yearbook

Wildfires in France in 2021

10 fires larger than 100 hectares in France in 2021, with 9,337 hectares burned according to their perimeters. Here is the whole year: what the official record says, when and where it burned and what the weather was like.

Only fires of 100 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the official yearly series.

These figures leave out 55 burns that were probably not wildfires (agricultural, pasture, reed-bed or prescribed). They appear in the lists, marked.

The year in a few sentences

  1. According to Copernicus EFFIS, 30,652 hectares burned in France in 2021: 2.2 times the average of the other years from 2006 to 2025 (13,919 ha).

    Copernicus EFFIS · See the data

  2. The worst week was 19 February to 25 February: 9,944 hectares burned in seven days, 32% of the year according to Copernicus EFFIS.

    Copernicus EFFIS · See the data

  3. The largest fire was the Gonfaron fire, which started on 16 August 2021 and burned 6,626 hectares: 71% of the area of the year's 10 fires with a page.

    WorldFires · See the data · Open the fire page

Official burned area
31k ha
Copernicus EFFIS · ×2.2 the average
Fires with a page
10
9,337 ha within their perimeters
Largest fire
6,626 ha
Gonfaron · 16 Aug
Highest FWI
—
Not yet calculated with the current method

Map of the year

Copernicus EFFIS
One circle per fire, sized by its area. Tap one to open its page.

Month by month

Hectares within the perimeters by the month the fire started. Tap a month to see it on the map.

Week by week, against other years

Copernicus EFFIS

Cumulative burned area in 2021 over the lowest and highest of each week in the record since 2006, and its average. The bars below show what burned each week. Tap the chart to see a week. The average and the band are the Copernicus EFFIS climatology for 2006–2025, which includes 2021 itself.

0 22k 44k 66k Worst week · 9,944 ha Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
2021 average 2006–2025 lowest and highest Hectares each week

Every year since 2006

Copernicus EFFIS

Hectares burned per year in the official record. Tap a year to open its yearbook.

2021: 30,652 ha Average of the other years: 13,919 ha

Cite this

Markdown version

Copy the sentences with their source and link. WorldFires data are CC BY 4.0: credit WorldFires and the original source.

- According to Copernicus EFFIS, 30,652 hectares burned in France in 2021: 2.2 times the average of the other years from 2006 to 2025 (13,919 ha).
- The worst week was 19 February to 25 February: 9,944 hectares burned in seven days, 32% of the year according to Copernicus EFFIS.
- The largest fire was the Gonfaron fire, which started on 16 August 2021 and burned 6,626 hectares: 71% of the area of the year's 10 fires with a page.

WorldFires, “Wildfires in France in 2021”, https://worldfires.org/en/country/france/2021 (accessed 5 November 2026). Sources: Copernicus EFFIS, WorldFires.

Fires of 2021, largest first · 65

Burned area in 2021 (Copernicus Land, Sentinel-3)

According to Copernicus Land, 35,486 ha burned in 2021: rank 5 of 7 complete years (1 = the most burned). The average of those years is 63,175 ha.

The area the Sentinel-3 satellite sees burned each month, separate from the fire pages. It is the same source and the same method every year, so years can be compared with each other. It counts everything that burns, including crop and pasture burning, which is why it does not match the fire pages or the official statistics.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Where most burned in 2021

  1. Pyrénées-Atlantiques 12,216 ha
  2. Var 9,491 ha
  3. Eure-et-Loir 2,305 ha
  4. Essonne 1,743 ha
  5. Aude 1,561 ha
  6. Hérault 717 ha
  7. Gironde 677 ha
  8. Vienne 669 ha
  9. Hautes Pyrenees 666 ha
  10. Vaucluse 394 ha

The whole series since 2018

Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, “Burnt Area 2018-present (raster 300 m), global, monthly – version 4”, monthly Sentinel-3 product, DOI 10.2909/8fa58061-28ab-49bb-9b77-c26b50733e34. Generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information; worldfires.org adds up, by country and region, the true area of the 300 m cells where a burn was detected. Latest month published: May 2026. Product page · Methodology

Sources and limits

Fire-page areas are satellite-measured perimeters and may differ from official statistics. The yearly and weekly record is the Copernicus EFFIS estimate. The FWI is our own calculation from ERA5 at each fire's location: it is not an official danger warning.

Official information for France is published by: Sécurité civile

Perimeters: Copernicus EFFIS and GWIS (and MTBS, NIFC or NBAC in North America). Hotspots: NASA FIRMS (VIIRS). Weather: Copernicus ERA5 via Open-Meteo. How it is calculated