How long did the Chaurai fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 April 2026 and 18 April 2026: 10 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 6,179 hectares (61.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Seoni (3,349 ha, 3.0 %); Chaurai (2,860 ha, 5.9 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

IN · India · 2026-04-09 → 2026-04-18

Chaurai fire, April 2026 Seoni, Chaurai

Out · last detection 19 Apr 2026, 08:20 UTC

The fire started on 9 April 2026 in Chaurai, India, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,179 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 46 in India in 2026, of 65.

Burnt area: 6,179ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 10days; 9 Apr 2026 – 18 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; subdistricts
Started on: 9 Apr; 2026
Heat detections: 286; in a single hotspot: 118 MW
Danger at start: 32; High · FWI index
Energy released: 2.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 19 Apr 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Apr18 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141516171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

42°high

41km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 30 Apr.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 91 ha in 2016, 22 ha in 2017, 1,867 ha in 2018, 1,672 ha in 2019, 1,681 ha in 2020, 1,206 ha in 2021, 2,619 ha in 2022, 1,022 ha in 2023, 571 ha in 2024, 419 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,759 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Seoni

3,349 ha reached on 8 Apr

3.0 %
Chaurai where it started

2,860 ha reached on 9 Apr

5.9 %

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)
8 Apr	31.6 °C	38 %	41 km/h	0.3 mm	High 32
9 Apr	32.7 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
10 Apr	34.1 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
11 Apr	35.5 °C	17 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
12 Apr	37.9 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
13 Apr	37.1 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
14 Apr	38.8 °C	18 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
15 Apr	39.1 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
16 Apr	39.9 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
17 Apr	40.0 °C	19 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Apr	40.4 °C	19 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 46
19 Apr after	41.5 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 51
20 Apr after	37.8 °C	21 %	37 km/h	1.0 mm	Very high 45
21 Apr after	38.3 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Apr after	38.9 °C	17 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
23 Apr after	39.5 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
24 Apr after	40.0 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Apr after	41.1 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
26 Apr after	41.9 °C	16 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
27 Apr after	41.0 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.9 mm	Very high 45
28 Apr after	40.2 °C	18 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
29 Apr after	40.4 °C	17 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
30 Apr after	38.3 °C	26 %	41 km/h	1.8 mm	Very high 39

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 2 Apr 2026

After · 25 Apr 2026

Before After

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 16 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak45 µg/m³

Days over the guideline19 days

PM10122 µg/m³

Optical depth0.83

WHO 15

6789101112131415161718192021222324252627

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely 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 · 286Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chaurai fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 April 2026 and 18 April 2026: 10 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 6,179 hectares (61.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Seoni (3,349 ha, 3.0 %); Chaurai (2,860 ha, 5.9 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned