Guangling County fire, 21 February 2026 Guangling County
The fire started on 21 February 2026 in Guangling County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,123 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 57th largest in Shanxi Province since 2016 (of 76 with a page). Number 770 in China in 2026, of 929.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.3 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
- 1,123ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 21 Feb 2026 – 21 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 21 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 34
- in a single hotspot: 19 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 266MW
- 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 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 27 Feb.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Guangling County where it started1,124 ha0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Feb | 11.0 °C | 10 % | 103 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Feb after | -1.5 °C | 21 % | 85 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 Feb after | 7.3 °C | 13 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 24 Feb after | 11.0 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 25 Feb after | 11.4 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 9 |
| 26 Feb after | 5.2 °C | 54 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 6 |
| 27 Feb after | 7.6 °C | 47 % | 29 km/h | 1.4 mm | Very low 1 |
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 21 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 83 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 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)
Detections table · 34Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,315 haGuangling County21 February 2026 · 1 day · 14 km away
- 2,269 haGuangling County19 February 2026 · 3 days · 23 km away
- 1,151 haYu County21 February 2026 · 1 day · 26 km away
- 3,277 haYangyuan CountyFebruary 2026 · 6 days · 28 km away
- 1,292 haHunyuan CountyOctober 2022 · 4 days · 33 km away
- 2,304 haDatong County20 February 2026 · 2 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guangling County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 February 2026 and 21 February 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 1,123 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Guangling County (1,124 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 11.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 103 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
- 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.