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Katingan fire, 9 September 2026 Katingan

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2026, 17:56 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2026 in Katingan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,467 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 173th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 315 with a page). Number 511 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

Burnt area
2,467ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
9 Sept 2026 – 25 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
9 Sept
2026
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
680MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314171819212225

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
34km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,739 ha in 2019, 541 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,684 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Katingan where it started
    2,484 ha
    0.1 %

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)
28 Aug 34.9 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Aug 35.6 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Aug 35.4 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Aug 35.2 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Sept 34.8 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Sept 34.8 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept 34.1 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Sept 33.8 °C 50 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Sept 34.5 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Sept 34.1 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Sept 32.8 °C 55 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
8 Sept 34.2 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Sept 34.2 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Sept 35.2 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Sept 35.5 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Sept 34.3 °C 44 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Sept 33.7 °C 53 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
14 Sept 34.8 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Sept 33.1 °C 49 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Sept 30.2 °C 63 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Sept 29.6 °C 65 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
18 Sept 34.8 °C 42 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
19 Sept 35.2 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Sept 35.0 °C 43 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Sept 33.0 °C 60 % 20 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 3
22 Sept 34.5 °C 46 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
23 Sept 35.2 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Sept 36.0 °C 44 % 31 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 15
25 Sept 31.6 °C 68 % 18 km/h 18.2 mm Very low 0
26 Sept after 34.5 °C 51 % 18 km/h 7.6 mm Very low 1
27 Sept after 31.0 °C 73 % 19 km/h 19.0 mm Very low 0
28 Sept after 34.2 °C 47 % 19 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 2
29 Sept after 34.7 °C 49 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm Low 6
30 Sept after 33.5 °C 57 % 23 km/h 0.6 mm Low 7
1 Oct after 33.5 °C 48 % 20 km/h 6.3 mm Very low 1
2 Oct after 35.2 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
3 Oct after 34.5 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
4 Oct after 34.8 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
5 Oct after 35.7 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2026
After · 2 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 21 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 1,386 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 773: 52 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,386 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM101,412 µg/m³
Optical depth13.72
78910111213141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 127Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2026 and 25 September 2026: 17 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 2,467 hectares (24.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Katingan (2,484 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Katingan fire still active?
No fire detections since 25 Sept 2026, 17:56 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 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.