Burned area
satellite only1,544ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 23 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
PK · Pakistan · –
Jhang fire, 23 October 2026 Jhang, 18-Hazari
Dying down · last detection 4 Nov 2026, 09:00 UTC
The fire started on 23 October 2026 in Jhang, Pakistan, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,544 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
Number 7 in Pakistan in 2026, of 28.
GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in October 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Jhang · 2025Jhang · 2025Jhang · 2026Jhang · 2025
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-04matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only13days
From 23 Oct 2026 to today: still being detected.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 4 Nov 2026, 09:00 UTC
+− cross-check
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.
Start
satellite only23 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 23 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only35
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 15 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
- Date
- 23 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only72MW
Total radiative power on 1 November 2026; hotspots that day: 8.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 1 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model6.5FWI · low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 8.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 23 Oct 2026, local noon
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model29.3°C · 37% RH
High of 29.3 °C and minimum humidity of 37% on 29 October 2026; gusts of 30 km/h on 24 October 2026.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 23 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 4,300people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 25 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 4 November 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 4 November 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the forecast (provisional until ERA5 arrives)
-
logPage published (1,172 ha).
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 4 November 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 1,172 ha
- Dates
- 23 Oct 2026 – ongoing
- Name
- Jhang
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/jhang-2026-10-4?v=2026-11-04A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire jhang-2026-10-4.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-23 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 18 | 53 | 17 | 19.8 | 2.3 | 6.5 | bajo | 1 |
| 2026-10-24 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 18.4 | 33 | 25.5 | 29.9 | 0.1 | 22.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-25 | 1 | 1 | 27.6 | 17.1 | 42 | 6.9 | 15.1 | 0 | 14 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-10-26 | 0 | 0 | 28.3 | 17.2 | 41 | 5.8 | 16.2 | 0 | 13.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-10-27 | 1 | 3 | 28.4 | 17.3 | 43 | 7.9 | 19.4 | 0 | 15.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-10-28 | 4 | 13 | 29.2 | 17.4 | 36 | 5.5 | 15.8 | 0 | 15.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-10-29 | 2 | 23 | 29.3 | 17 | 37 | 5.9 | 12.2 | 0 | 16.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-10-30 | 1 | 5 | 27.8 | 17.4 | 45 | 8 | 16.6 | 0 | 17.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-10-31 | 5 | 27 | 28.6 | 17.5 | 44 | 9.4 | 22.3 | 0 | 18.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-11-01 | 8 | 72 | 28.3 | 18.2 | 46 | 5.8 | 16.6 | 0 | 16.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-11-02 | 0 | 0 | 28.7 | 18.7 | 46 | 5.2 | 14.4 | 0.1 | 16.5 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-11-03 | 5 | 25 | 28.3 | 18.3 | 44 | 8 | 19.4 | 0 | 18.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-11-04 | 8 | 29 | 28.7 | 18.1 | 42 | 4.4 | 15.5 | 0 | 16.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-11-05 | 0 | 0 | 28.6 | 18.5 | 41 | 8.4 | 19.1 | 1.4 | 10.7 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ECMWF IFS · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
Is it still active?
No detections since 4 Nov 2026, 09:00 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
- 1,544ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 23 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 23 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 35
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 22MW
- detected power per day, on average
The next 72 hours
The wind is blowing from the west and pushing eastwards; no sharp shifts are expected until Sun 8, 11:00.
ECMWF IFS 0.25° at the centre of the fire · computed 5 Nov 2026, 05:53 UTC
No sharp changes in the next 72 h
No strong wind shifts and no dry nights. No warnings does not mean the fire will go out: in this weather it can carry on as it is.
Checked, no warning: no wind shifts of more than 60° nights recover humidity (peaks of 87 % or more) no useful rain expected (0.0 mm in 72 h)
Hour by hour, local time
Tap the strip to see each hour
Mean wind
Gusts
where it blows to
Relative humidity
Night (8 pm to 8 am)
Rain (mm) · chance in %
Where is it blowing? The next 48 h
geoBoundaries/Pathways Data Pvt. Ltd., https//www.pbs.gov.pk/content/population-census/ (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0)
At this hour
Places the fan reaches
Is it heading my way?
We compare your point with the fan for each hour. Your location never leaves your device.
or tap the mapThis is not an official warning. It is a global model forecast with cells of about 25 km, at the centre of the fire: it cannot see valley winds or the winds the fire itself creates. The fan shows where the wind blows, not where the fire will spread. If in doubt, follow what the authorities say.
Emergencies · Pakistan 1122 · 16 Emergency number and official warningsForecast: ECMWF IFS 0.25° (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), served by our own Open-Meteo instance; the chance of rain comes from the ECMWF ensemble. Variables: wind and gusts at 10 m, wind at 850 hPa, relative humidity and temperature at 2 m, rain. Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0).
Fire: GWIS / Copernicus (reconstructed from VIIRS) (CC BY 4.0); hotspots from the last 24 h: VIIRS from NASA FIRMS. Boundaries: geoBoundaries/Pathways Data Pvt. Ltd., https//www.pbs.gov.pk/content/population-census/ (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0).
How it is worked out: wind shift = a change of more than 60° in 6 h or less, with at least 15 km/h before and after; no overnight recovery = peak humidity between 8 pm and 8 am stays below 55 %; useful rain = 2 mm or more in 6 h. The fan opens 18° plus however much the wind varies within ±3 h and reaches 25 km beyond the edge of the fire: one model cell, not a rate of spread. Methodology
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
23 Oct4 Nov
4 Nov 2026
How it evolved, day by day
23 Oct
27 Oct
29 Oct
1 Nov
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
29°high
30km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity
It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 5 Nov.
This area had burned before
56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 200 ha in 2016, 28 ha in 2018, 31 ha in 2019, 156 ha in 2022, 38 ha in 2023, 367 ha in 2024, 485 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 866 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Jhang where it started1,245 ha reached on 23 Oct0.5 %
-
308 ha reached on 23 Oct0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area25 ha
Residents≈ 4,300
Inside the perimeter there were about 25 hectares of built-up land and about 4,300 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Oct | 29.0 °C | 53 % | 20 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 6 |
| 24 Oct | 28.4 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Oct | 27.6 °C | 42 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 26 Oct | 28.3 °C | 41 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 27 Oct | 28.4 °C | 43 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 28 Oct | 29.2 °C | 36 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Oct | 29.3 °C | 37 % | 12 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 30 Oct | 27.8 °C | 45 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 31 Oct | 28.6 °C | 44 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Nov | 28.3 °C | 46 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 2 Nov | 28.7 °C | 46 % | 14 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 3 Nov | 28.3 °C | 44 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 4 Nov | 28.7 °C | 42 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 5 Nov after | 28.6 °C | 41 % | 19 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 11 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 16 Oct 2026
After · 4 Nov 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 3 November 2026 the air beside the fire reached 203 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 122: 8.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak203 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10229 µg/m³
Optical depth1.07
WHO 15
21 Oct24 Oct27 Oct30 Oct2 Nov
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 · 35Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,250 haJhang25 October 2025 · 22 days · 5 km away
- 1,776 haJhangNovember 2025 · 9 days · 5 km away
- 2,443 haJhang 22 October 2026 · 14 days · 10 km away
- 5,595 haJhang18 October 2025 · 25 days · 13 km away
- 4,068 haJhang14 October 2025 · 31 days · 15 km away
- 1,460 haJhang 21 October 2026 · 15 days · 18 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jhang fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 October 2026 to 4 November 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 October 2026 to 4 November 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,544 hectares (15.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jhang (1,245 ha, 0.5 %); 18-Hazari (308 ha, 0.2 %).
- Is the Jhang fire still active?
- No fire detections since 4 Nov 2026, 09:00 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
- What weather is expected at the fire over the next 72 hours?
- The wind is blowing from the west and pushing eastwards; no sharp shifts are expected until Sun 8, 11:00. No strong wind shifts, dry nights or useful rain are expected. Times are local time at the fire. ECMWF IFS forecast (Open-Meteo) computed 5 Nov 2026, 05:53 UTC; this is not an official warning.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Pakistan (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: 1122 · 16 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 4 November 2026.
- Page published (1,172 ha).
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 October 2026 to 4 November 2026. 35 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.