Guéra fire, October 2026 Guéra, Aboudéia
The fire started on 15 October 2026 in Guéra, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,136 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 201th largest in Guéra since 2016 (of 242 with a page). Number 154 in Chad in 2026, of 172.
Is it still active?
No detections since 22 Oct 2026, 12:19 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
- Burnt area
- 2,136ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 15 Oct 2026 – 22 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 15 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 21
- in a single hotspot: 32 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 200MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 294 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Guéra where it started1,339 ha reached on 18 Oct0.2 %
-
807 ha reached on 21 Oct0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Oct | 40.1 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Oct | 41.0 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 17 Oct | 39.9 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Oct | 38.7 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Oct | 36.9 °C | 25 % | 17 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Oct | 39.2 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 Oct | 40.0 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 22 Oct | 40.2 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Oct after | 39.6 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
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 22 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 57 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 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 · 21Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,966 haBarh-Signaka 14 October 2026 · 9 days · 22 km away
- 3,489 haAboudéiaDecember 2018 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 3,193 haAboudéia29 November 2020 · 5 days · 35 km away
- 2,913 haAboudéia9 December 2019 · 5 days · 35 km away
- 6,003 haAboudéia23 December 2021 · 4 days · 36 km away
- 3,639 haAboudéiaJanuary 2020 · 4 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guéra fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 October 2026 to 22 October 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,136 hectares (21.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guéra (1,339 ha, 0.2 %); Aboudéia (807 ha, 0.1 %).
- Is the Guéra fire still active?
- No fire detections since 22 Oct 2026, 12:19 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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.
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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.