Constantine fire, August 2026 الخروب · Constantine
The fire started on 23 August 2026 in Constantine, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 162 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 22th largest in Constantine since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 162 in Algeria in 2026, of 197.
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.
- Burnt area
- 162ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 23 Aug 2026 – 23 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 23 Aug
- 2026
- Danger at start
- 94
- Very extreme · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day 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
-
163 ha0.9 %
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
- Mixed forest57 %
- Other natural land43 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Aug | 41.5 °C | 10 % | 76 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 94 |
| 24 Aug after | 41.7 °C | 10 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 25 Aug after | 40.9 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 26 Aug after | 42.6 °C | 9 % | 70 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 87 |
| 27 Aug after | 42.6 °C | 8 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 85 |
| 28 Aug after | 39.8 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 29 Aug after | 39.9 °C | 13 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 30 Aug after | 37.5 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 31 Aug after | 38.5 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Sept after | 36.8 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Sept after | 36.8 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
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 25 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 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)
Other fires nearby
- 2,637 haEl KhroubJuly 2021 · 3 days · 8 km away
- 6,045 haIbn Badis ابن باديسJuly 2026 · 1 day · 14 km away
- 3,593 haIbn Badis ابن باديسAugust 2022 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 3,913 haAin Bouziane عين بوزيانJuly 2026 · 1 day · 22 km away
- 2,708 haAïn Smara عين سمارةJuly 2026 · 1 day · 22 km away
- 2,768 haGrarem Gouga القرارم قوقةJuly 2026 · 1 day · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Constantine fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2026 and 23 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 162 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Constantine (163 ha, 0.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 13.9 km of Constantine. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 76 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 94, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (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: 14 · 1021
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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.