Bima fire, August 2026 Bima
The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Bima, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,377 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in West Nusa Tenggara since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 341 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.
- Burnt area
- 3,377ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 16 Aug 2026 – 21 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- regencies
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 50 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 476MW
- 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 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 862 ha in 2017, 795 ha in 2018, 661 ha in 2019, 344 ha in 2020, 76 ha in 2021, 940 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,368 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Bima where it started3,397 ha reached on 16 Aug0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 23.0 °C | 54 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 17 Aug | 23.8 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 18 Aug | 23.5 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 19 Aug | 22.8 °C | 58 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 20 Aug | 22.8 °C | 52 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 21 Aug | 23.8 °C | 56 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 Aug after | 24.0 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 Aug after | 23.7 °C | 52 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Aug after | 23.5 °C | 42 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 25 Aug after | 23.5 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Aug after | 22.8 °C | 56 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 27 Aug after | 22.4 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Aug after | 23.4 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Aug after | 24.0 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 30 Aug after | 24.1 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Aug after | 23.9 °C | 41 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 1 Sept after | 24.5 °C | 36 % | 69 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
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 17 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 13 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 · 79Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2026 and 21 August 2026: 6 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 3,377 hectares (33.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bima (3,397 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 24.0 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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
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.