Ceredigion fire, June 2018 Ceredigion
The fire started on 26 June 2018 in Ceredigion, United Kingdom, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 117 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in Wales since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 19 in United Kingdom in 2018, of 19.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 117ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 26 Jun 2018 – 30 Jun 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Jun
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 16
- in a single hotspot: 81 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 46MW
- detected power per day, on average
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.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Ceredigion where it started117 ha reached on 26 Jun0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. 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.
What burned
- Mixed forest50 %
- Agricultural areas25 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland24 %
Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 7 %
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 Jun | 27.2 °C | 33 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 27 Jun | 26.3 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 Jun | 26.6 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 29 Jun | 25.6 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 30 Jun | 25.2 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 1 Jul after | 24.8 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Jul after | 27.0 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Jul after | 25.0 °C | 32 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Jul after | 23.2 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 Jul after | 23.0 °C | 52 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 6 Jul after | 22.2 °C | 58 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 7 Jul after | 23.6 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 29 June 2018 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 · 16Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,367 haPowys26 April 2026 · 6 days · 17 km away
- 1,322 haPowysMarch 2019 · 2 days · 20 km away
- 5,018 haPowys7 April 2025 · 5 days · 21 km away
- 1,480 haElan Valley PowysApril 2026 · 1 day · 21 km away
- 2,246 haCeredigion22 March 2020 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 956 haCarmarthenshire18 March 2026 · 2 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ceredigion fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 June 2018 to 30 June 2018 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 June 2018 to 27 June 2018.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 117 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ceredigion (117 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United Kingdom (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: 999 · 112 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 June 2018 to 27 June 2018. 16 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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 ADM3 (Open Government Licence v3.0). 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.