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Katingan fire, 26 August 2026 Katingan

Out · last detection 14 Oct 2026, 18:41 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2026 in Katingan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,107 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 131th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 315 with a page). Number 385 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.9 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
3,107ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
50days
26 Aug 2026 – 14 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
26 Aug
2026
Heat detections
290
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031123458111213151819202122232527281234567891011121314

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
36km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Katingan where it started
    3,127 ha reached on 26 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
27 Aug 34.8 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Aug 35.0 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Aug 35.2 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Aug 35.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Aug 35.0 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Sept 35.0 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Sept 34.8 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept 34.1 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Sept 33.8 °C 48 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Sept 34.3 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Sept 34.3 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Sept 32.8 °C 55 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
8 Sept 33.7 °C 48 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Sept 34.2 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
10 Sept 35.3 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Sept 35.3 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Sept 34.3 °C 45 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Sept 33.3 °C 55 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
14 Sept 34.5 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Sept 33.0 °C 50 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Sept 30.2 °C 64 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Sept 29.4 °C 66 % 12 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
18 Sept 34.8 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Sept 35.0 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Sept 35.0 °C 46 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Sept 32.9 °C 58 % 17 km/h 2.5 mm Low 7
22 Sept 34.3 °C 47 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Sept 35.2 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Sept 36.2 °C 42 % 27 km/h 4.1 mm Low 10
25 Sept 31.9 °C 68 % 19 km/h 18.4 mm Very low 0
26 Sept 33.8 °C 58 % 24 km/h 6.8 mm Very low 1
27 Sept 30.7 °C 75 % 19 km/h 20.7 mm Very low 0
28 Sept 33.5 °C 53 % 20 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 1
29 Sept 34.0 °C 54 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 4
30 Sept 33.2 °C 59 % 25 km/h 0.8 mm Low 6
1 Oct 32.2 °C 56 % 23 km/h 7.6 mm Very low 1
2 Oct 34.7 °C 46 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
3 Oct 34.0 °C 50 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
4 Oct 34.5 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
5 Oct 35.0 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 19 Aug 2026
After · 21 Oct 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 680 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 429: 29 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak680 µg/m³
Days over the guideline33 days
PM10693 µg/m³
Optical depth9.56
3112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012
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 · 290Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Katingan fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 August 2026 to 14 October 2026 (50 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 September 2026 to 14 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,107 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Katingan (3,127 ha, 0.2 %).
Is the Katingan fire still active?
No fire detections since 14 Oct 2026, 18:41 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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: 112

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.