Kankossa fire, February 2026 Kankossa
The fire started on 17 February 2026 in Kankossa, Mauritania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,758 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 5th largest in Assaba since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 2 in Mauritania in 2026, of 30.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.7 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
- 4,758ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 17 Feb 2026 – 23 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 17 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 67
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 73
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 307MW
- 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 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,494 ha in 2016, 886 ha in 2020, 9 ha in 2021, 1,601 ha in 2022, 1 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,728 ha that had burned before.
- 1,768 ha Kankossa fire, October 2016 3,454 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,703 ha Kankossa fire, April 2016 3,500 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,601 ha Koussané fire, March 2022 6,613 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 653 ha Kankossa fire, October 2020 1,631 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 23 ha Kankossa fire, December 2016 4,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9 ha Kankossa fire, January 2021 1,668 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Koussané fire, October 2025 3,744 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kankossa where it started4,552 ha reached on 18 Feb0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Feb | 34.2 °C | 5 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 18 Feb | 35.8 °C | 8 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 19 Feb | 37.0 °C | 6 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 20 Feb | 38.7 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 21 Feb | 38.3 °C | 8 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 22 Feb | 37.4 °C | 8 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 23 Feb | 35.7 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 24 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 25 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 26 Feb after | 39.4 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 28 Feb after | 31.5 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Mar after | 32.0 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 2 Mar after | 32.8 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Mar after | 32.3 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 4 Mar after | 34.3 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 5 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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 16 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 301 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 249: 17 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 · 67Every 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 Kankossa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 February 2026 and 23 February 2026: 7 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 4,758 hectares (47.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kankossa (4,552 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 81, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mauritania (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.