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Corte fire, July 2026 Corte

Out · last measured on 14 Jul 2026

The fire started on 14 July 2026 in Corte, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,081 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Haute-Corse since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 11 in France in 2026, of 114.

Burnt area
1,081ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
14 Jul 2026 – 14 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
14 Jul
2026
Heat detections
175
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul14 Jul

The weather it burned in

31°high
21km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

  1. Corte 7,819 inhabitants · 5.3 km from the town where it started
    1,082 ha reached on 17 Jul
    7.3 %

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

  • Other natural land65 %
  • Coniferous forest35 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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)
14 Jul 31.0 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Jul after 31.9 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Jul after 31.6 °C 22 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Jul after 32.0 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Jul after 30.8 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Jul after 30.6 °C 26 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Jul after 29.9 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Jul after 30.0 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
22 Jul after 28.4 °C 14 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jul after 26.8 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jul after 25.8 °C 26 % 11 km/h 0.0 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2026
After · 21 Jul 2026

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 17 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1062 µg/m³
Optical depth0.55
121314151617
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 · 175Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in France ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Corte fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 14 July 2026 and 14 July 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 1,081 hectares (10.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Corte (1,082 ha, 7.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.3 km of Corte. 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 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 21 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of France (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 · 18

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112 · 18.

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 ADM5 (Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0). 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.