Macouria fire, October 2026
Macouria, Kourou, Montsinéry-Tonnegrande
Burning · last detection 6 Nov 2026, 16:41 UTC
Satellites first detected fire on 28 October 2026 in Macouria, France. It has been active for 10 days, with 84 heat detections and an area with fire of about 854 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 3 municipalities.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
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Burned area
satellite only
≈ 854ha
Estimated from hotspots: no perimeter has been published yet.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
28 Oct 2026 – 6 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate from the VIIRS pixels that saw fire. It will change when the perimeter is published.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
10days
From 28 Oct 2026 to today: still being detected.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 6 Nov 2026, 16:41 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 only
28 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
28 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 only
84
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 78 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
Date
28 Oct 2026 – 6 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 only
212MW
Total radiative power on 1 November 2026; hotspots that day: 10.
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
model
17.5FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
Source
WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
Date
28 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
model
32.0°C · 53% RH
High of 32.0 °C and minimum humidity of 53% on 31 October 2026; gusts of 46 km/h on 2 November 2026.
Source
weather model at the fire’s grid cell
Date
28 Oct 2026 – 6 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.
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 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
log
Area: ≈ 1,008 → ≈ 924 ha.
log
Start date: 26 October 2026 → 27 October 2026.
log
Name: Montsinéry-Tonnegrande → Macouria.
log
Area: ≈ 798 → ≈ 1,008 ha.
log
Start date: 25 October 2026 → 26 October 2026.
log
Name: Kourou → Montsinéry-Tonnegrande.
· reconstructedweather
Weather and FWI computed from the forecast (provisional until ERA5 arrives)
A 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
Copernicus has not yet published the burnt perimeter, which takes a few days to measure on satellite imagery. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). When the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.
Is it still active?
Satellites detected fire on 6 Nov 2026, 16:41 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. 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.
Area with fire
≈ 854ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
10days
28 Oct 2026 – 6 Nov 2026
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
28 Oct
2026
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
62MW
detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
28 Oct6 Nov
Play back6 Nov 2026
How it evolved, day by day
28 Oct30 Oct1 Nov3 Nov5 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
32°high
46km/h · peak gust
53%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
What happened to each town
Macouria19,899 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centrewhere it started
Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. 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.
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)
27 Oct
32.3 °C
57 %
36 km/h
0.7 mm
Moderate 18
28 Oct
31.6 °C
62 %
36 km/h
3.8 mm
Moderate 11
29 Oct
31.4 °C
62 %
37 km/h
0.3 mm
Low 10
30 Oct
31.5 °C
61 %
40 km/h
0.6 mm
Moderate 18
31 Oct
32.0 °C
53 %
38 km/h
0.0 mm
High 22
1 Nov
31.5 °C
61 %
36 km/h
0.4 mm
Moderate 20
2 Nov
32.0 °C
57 %
46 km/h
0.2 mm
High 25
3 Nov
31.7 °C
58 %
39 km/h
0.2 mm
High 24
4 Nov
31.5 °C
55 %
37 km/h
0.4 mm
High 24
5 Nov
31.4 °C
58 %
39 km/h
0.3 mm
High 25
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 17.5, a minimum humidity of 62% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2023: 3.
FWI at the start17.5
Minimum humidity62 %
Days without rain2
this firechosen twinsrest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
Oiapoque fire, October 2024
5,352 ha17 daysFWI 14.0Min. humidity 62 %228 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.0 mm on 10 Nov.
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 3. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How a twin is chosen
Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2023.
Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 21 Oct 2026
After · 5 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 · Copernicus
On 2 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 9 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak9µg/m³
Days over the guideline0days
PM1014µg/m³
Optical depth0.22
28293012
GoodFairModeratePoorVery poorExtremely 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· 84Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.›
⬇ Download CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and time
Satellite
FRP (MW)
Lat
Lon
Frequently asked questions
How long did the Macouria fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 28 October 2026 to 6 November 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?
There is no official perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 854 hectares with fire (8.5 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Macouria (462 ha, 1.5 %); Kourou (392 ha, 0.2 %); Montsinéry-Tonnegrande (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the Macouria fire still active?
Yes: satellites detected fire on 6 Nov 2026, 16:41 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Macouria and came within 0.9 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 53 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of France (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.
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 errorHow we know this›
No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 854 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 84 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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 ADM5 (Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.