Gannan County fire, 14 October 2026 Gannan County
The fire started on 14 October 2026 in Gannan County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,536 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 263th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1751 with a page). Number 169 in China in 2026, of 929.
The power measured by the satellite is low (21.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,536ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 14 Oct 2026 – 16 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 14 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 30
- in a single hotspot: 21 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 218MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9 ha in 2016, 885 ha in 2017, 321 ha in 2020, 312 ha in 2022, 406 ha in 2024, 1,173 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,521 ha that had burned before.
- 988 ha Gannan County fire, October 2025 1,627 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 43 ha Gannan County fire, October 2024 1,833 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 24 ha Gannan County fire, April 2020 1,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Gannan County where it started3,554 ha reached on 14 Oct0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Oct | 17.6 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Oct | 14.8 °C | 36 % | 57 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 13 Oct | 11.1 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Oct | 8.1 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 15 Oct | 8.9 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 16 Oct | 10.3 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 14 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 22 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 · 30Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gannan County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2026 and 16 October 2026: 3 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 3,536 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Gannan County (3,554 ha, 0.7 %).
- Is the Gannan County fire still active?
- No fire detections since 16 Oct 2026, 05:53 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 17.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of China (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: 119
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 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.