Satellites first detected fire on 20 October 2026 in Besni, Türkiye. It was active for 7 days, with 14 heat detections and an area with fire of about 196 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across a single municipality.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
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Burned area
satellite only
≈ 196ha
Estimated from hotspots: no perimeter has been published yet.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
20 Oct 2026 – 26 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate from the VIIRS pixels that saw fire. It will change when the perimeter is published.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
7days
20 Oct 2026 to 26 Oct 2026: first and last day with fire on the page.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 26 Oct 2026, 10:11 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only
20 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
20 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only
14
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 19 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
Date
20 Oct 2026 – 26 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only
34MW
Total radiative power on 25 October 2026; hotspots that day: 5.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
25 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model
8.1FWI · low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 4.
Source
WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
Date
20 Oct 2026, local noon
Model
ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
Weather during the fire
model
24.9°C · 36% RH
High of 24.9 °C and minimum humidity of 36% on 23 October 2026; gusts of 37 km/h on 26 October 2026.
Source
weather model at the fire’s grid cell
Date
20 Oct 2026 – 26 Oct 2026
Model
ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
· reconstructedweather
Weather and FWI computed from the forecast (provisional until ERA5 arrives)
log
Area: ≈ 294 → ≈ 196 ha.
log
Start date: 19 October 2026 → 20 October 2026.
log
Area: ≈ 308 → ≈ 294 ha.
log
Last day with fire: 24 October 2026 → 26 October 2026.
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
Copernicus has not yet published the burnt perimeter, which takes a few days to measure on satellite imagery. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). When the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.
Area with fire
≈ 196ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
7days
20 Oct 2026 – 26 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
20 Oct
2026
Heat detections
14
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
17MW
detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
20 Oct26 Oct
Play back26 Oct 2026
How it evolved, day by day
20 Oct22 Oct25 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
25°high
37km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.9 mm on 27 Oct.
What happened to each town
Besni77,301 inhabitants · 9.4 km from the centrewhere it started
196 hareached on 20 Oct
0.2 %
Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
Day
High
Min. humidity
Peak gust
Rain
Danger (FWI)
20 Oct
22.7 °C
39 %
22 km/h
0.0 mm
Low 8
21 Oct
23.6 °C
37 %
23 km/h
0.3 mm
Moderate 12
22 Oct
24.2 °C
36 %
18 km/h
0.0 mm
Low 11
23 Oct
24.9 °C
36 %
17 km/h
0.0 mm
Low 11
24 Oct
24.0 °C
38 %
23 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 13
25 Oct
24.1 °C
41 %
26 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 15
26 Oct
24.3 °C
39 %
37 km/h
0.1 mm
Moderate 19
27 Oct after
24.1 °C
49 %
40 km/h
7.9 mm
Moderate 14
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 8.1, a minimum humidity of 39% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 10.
FWI at the start8.1
Minimum humidity39 %
Days without rain4
this firechosen twinsrest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
Kangal fire, October 2024
112 ha1 dayFWI 3.7Min. humidity 36 %195 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 7 Oct.
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 10. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
7.9 mmfirst rain
27 Octthe day after it ended
37km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 26 Oct, and on 27 Oct 7.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
How a twin is chosen
Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 13 Oct 2026
After · 2 Nov 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · Copernicus
On 14 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak32µg/m³
Days over the guideline3days
PM1057µg/m³
Optical depth1.04
WHO 15
7 Oct9 Oct11 Oct13 Oct
GoodFairModeratePoorVery poorExtremely poor
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· 14Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.›
⬇ Download CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 20 October 2026 to 26 October 2026 (7 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?
There is no official perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 196 hectares with fire (2.0 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Besni (196 ha, 0.2 %).
Is the Besni fire still active?
No fire detections since 26 Oct 2026, 10:11 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Besni and came within 9.4 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.9 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Türkiye (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.
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 errorHow we know this›
No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 196 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 14 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
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 ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database 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.