Batha Est fire, 22 January 2026 Batha Est, Biltine
The fire started on 22 January 2026 in Batha Est, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,215 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Batha since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 10 in Chad in 2026, of 169.
- Burnt area
- 9,215ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 22 Jan 2026 – 23 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 22 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 217
- in a single hotspot: 64 MW
- Danger at start
- 63
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,410 ha in 2021, 441 ha in 2025.
What happened to each town
-
Batha Est where it started9,085 ha reached on 22 Jan0.3 %
-
229 ha reached on 22 Jan0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jan | 36.2 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 23 Jan | 36.0 °C | 8 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.8 °C | 8 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 25 Jan after | 37.8 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 26 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 27 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 8 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 28 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 7 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 29 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 5 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 30 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 6 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 5 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.5 °C | 4 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 2 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 5 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
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 26 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 132 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 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 · 217Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,850 haBatha Est31 December 2025 · 2 days · 7 km away
- 9,071 haBatha Est24 October 2021 · 3 days · 9 km away
- 9,220 haBatha Est24 April 2019 · 2 days · 16 km away
- 6,436 haBiltine9 November 2025 · 2 days · 23 km away
- 6,726 haBiltineFebruary 2026 · 3 days · 33 km away
- 14,646 haBiltine8 November 2025 · 3 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Batha Est fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 January 2026 and 23 January 2026: 2 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,215 hectares (92.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Batha Est (9,085 ha, 0.3 %); Biltine (229 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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.
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 comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.