Lanxi County fire, 21 March 2026 Lanxi County
The fire started on 21 March 2026 in Lanxi County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,126 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 1433th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1751 with a page). Number 764 in China in 2026, of 929.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.4 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
- 1,126ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 21 Mar 2026 – 27 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 21 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 18
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 139MW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 29 Mar.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 30 ha in 2016, 18 ha in 2017, 530 ha in 2021, 3 ha in 2022, 518 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 890 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Lanxi County where it started1,127 ha0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Mar | 9.7 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Mar | 11.1 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 23 Mar | 11.3 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 24 Mar | 16.3 °C | 19 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 25 Mar | 14.8 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 26 Mar | 12.8 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 27 Mar | 11.5 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 28 Mar after | 12.9 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 29 Mar after | 10.8 °C | 38 % | 56 km/h | 1.2 mm | Low 5 |
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 25 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 130 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 100: 6.6 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 · 18Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,936 haLanxi County21 March 2026 · 11 days · 24 km away
- 7,460 haLanxi County13 March 2026 · 19 days · 29 km away
- 5,990 haLanxi County12 March 2026 · 13 days · 29 km away
- 7,497 haHulan District27 March 2023 · 7 days · 32 km away
- 9,059 haQinggang County26 March 2026 · 10 days · 33 km away
- 11,840 haHulan District29 October 2017 · 9 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lanxi County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 March 2026 and 27 March 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 1,126 hectares (11.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lanxi County (1,127 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 16.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of China (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: 119
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 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.