Choibalsan fire, October 2026 Choibalsan
The fire started on 7 October 2026 in Choibalsan, Mongolia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,595 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 11th largest in Dornod since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 5 in Mongolia in 2026, of 11.
- Burnt area
- 3,595ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 7 Oct 2026 – 7 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 89
- in a single hotspot: 338 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.2GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,136 ha in 2017, 270 ha in 2019, 489 ha in 2022, 748 ha in 2023, 5 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,031 ha that had burned before.
- 748 ha New Barga Right Banner fire, April 2023 1,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 678 ha New Barga Right Banner fire, June 2017 1,655 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 489 ha New Barga Right Banner fire, April 2022 5,695 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Choibalsan where it started3,591 ha reached on 7 Oct0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 18.2 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Oct after | 11.2 °C | 45 % | 28 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 7 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 8 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 · 89Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,695 haNew Barga Right Banner15 April 2022 · 1 day · 8 km away
- 7,556 haNew Barga Right Banner29 April 2019 · 1 day · 14 km away
- 2,357 haNew Barga Right Banner28 June 2017 · 1 day · 15 km away
- 3,255 haNew Barga Right Banner19 September 2022 · 1 day · 17 km away
- 2,122 haNew Barga Right Banner29 April 2019 · 1 day · 24 km away
- 3,758 haNew Barga Right Banner2 May 2023 · 1 day · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Choibalsan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2026 and 7 October 2026: 1 day 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 3,595 hectares (36.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Choibalsan (3,591 ha, 0.4 %).
- Is the Choibalsan fire still active?
- No fire detections since 7 Oct 2026, 06:08 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 18.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mongolia (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: 105 · 101
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.