Arette fire, February 2026 Arette
The fire started on 26 February 2026 in Arette, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 267 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 20th largest in Pyrénées-Atlantiques since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 38 in France in 2026, of 114.
The power measured by the satellite is low (7.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 267ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 26 Feb 2026 – 26 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 26 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 12
- in a single hotspot: 8 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 63MW
- sum of detected power
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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 27 Feb.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 55 ha in 2017, 226 ha in 2019, 78 ha in 2021, 106 ha in 2022, 119 ha in 2023, 22 ha in 2024, 155 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 244 ha that had burned before.
- 226 ha Arette fire, February 2019 690 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 155 ha Arette fire, February 2025 183 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 78 ha Arette fire, March 2021 159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
268 ha reached on 26 Feb2.9 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land83 %
- Broadleaved forest17 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Haute Soule : massif de la Pierre Saint-Martin FR7212008
- LIC Le Gave d'Oloron (cours d'eau) et marais de Labastide-Villefranche FR7200791
- LIC Montagnes du Barétous FR7200749
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Feb | 17.6 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 27 Feb after | 17.4 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 1.2 mm | Very low 2 |
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 28 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 12Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,172 haLarrau24 February 2026 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 1,316 haAussurucqFebruary 2026 · 1 day · 24 km away
- 2,916 haMendiveFebruary 2019 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 1,120 haHostaFebruary 2019 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 1,965 haLecumberry14 February 2019 · 3 days · 32 km away
- 1,379 haEstérençubyFebruary 2021 · 6 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Arette fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 26 February 2026 and 26 February 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 267 hectares (2.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Arette (268 ha, 2.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.5 km of Arette. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 17.6 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of France (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 · 18
Satellite cross-check
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
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 ADM5 (Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0). 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.