برقو fire, August 2026 برقو, الوسلاتية
The fire started on 27 August 2026 in برقو, Tunisia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,570 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Siliana since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 2 in Tunisia in 2026, of 36.
- Burnt area
- 2,570ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 27 Aug 2026 – 1 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- delegations
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 111
- in a single hotspot: 191 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 2 Sept.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 35 ha in 2022.
What happened to each town
-
برقو where it started2,559 ha reached on 27 Aug5.7 %
-
15 ha reached on 1 Sept0.0 %
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
- Coniferous forest40 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub22 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
- Agricultural areas13 %
- Broadleaved forest4.3 %
- Other natural land4.3 %
- Mixed forest0.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 40.0 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Aug | 40.0 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 29 Aug | 35.3 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Aug | 36.2 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 36 |
| 31 Aug | 36.0 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Sept | 34.5 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 1.3 mm | High 24 |
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 2 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.6 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 · 111Every 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 برقو fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 August 2026 to 1 September 2026 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 August 2026 to 27 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,570 hectares (25.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: برقو (2,559 ha, 5.7 %); الوسلاتية (15 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Tunisia (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: 198
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 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.