Changling County fire, 28 October 2025 Changling County
The fire started on 28 October 2025 in Changling County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,430 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 479th largest in Jilin Province since 2016 (of 812 with a page). Number 457 in China in 2025, of 736.
The power measured by the satellite is low (11.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,430ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 28 Oct 2025 – 29 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 28 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 25
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 136MW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 5 Nov.
This area had burned before
10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 140 ha in 2020.
What happened to each town
-
Changling County where it started1,431 ha0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Oct | 5.5 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 29 Oct | 14.6 °C | 41 % | 65 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Oct after | 10.1 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 31 Oct after | 13.3 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Nov after | 9.0 °C | 45 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Nov after | 1.4 °C | 42 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 3 Nov after | 7.7 °C | 28 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 4 Nov after | 11.8 °C | 26 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Nov after | 12.3 °C | 63 % | 48 km/h | 1.7 mm | Low 7 |
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 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 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 · 25Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,062 haChangling County16 March 2026 · 8 days · 13 km away
- 2,568 haQian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County15 March 2026 · 1 day · 14 km away
- 2,437 haQian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County17 March 2026 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 8,861 haNong'an County14 March 2026 · 7 days · 31 km away
- 2,964 haChangling County17 March 2026 · 4 days · 31 km away
- 7,095 haNong'an County16 November 2025 · 7 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Changling County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 October 2025 and 29 October 2025: 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 1,430 hectares (14.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Changling County (1,431 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 14.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of China (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: 119
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 ADM3 (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 from each country’s official figure.