Emsland fire, May 2026 Emsland
The fire started on 27 May 2026 in Emsland, Germany, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 120 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 9 in Germany in 2026, of 10.
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
- 120ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 27 May 2026 – 27 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 May
- 2026
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 100%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.5 mm on 29 May.
This area had burned before
26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 31 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Emsland where it started120 ha0.0 %
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 land99 %
- Coniferous forest0.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Tinner Dose, Sprakeler Heide DE3110301
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 May | 19.6 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 28 May after | 21.8 °C | 38 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 29 May after | 30.6 °C | 41 % | 46 km/h | 16.5 mm | Very low 2 |
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 26 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 24 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Emsland fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 27 May 2026 and 27 May 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 120 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Emsland (120 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 19.6 °C, humidity dropped to 49 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Germany (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
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 (Data license Germany - Attribution - Version 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.