Markam County fire, January 2026 Markam County
The fire started on 6 January 2026 in Markam County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,221 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 8th largest in Tibet Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 327 in China in 2026, of 929.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.4 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
- 2,221ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 6 Jan 2026 – 16 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 6 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 56
- in a single hotspot: 17 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 285MW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,794 ha in 2024, 3,586 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,143 ha that had burned before.
- 3,105 ha Markam County fire, December 2025 4,097 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,132 ha Markam County fire, December 2024 1,316 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,075 ha Markam County fire, December 2024 1,161 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Markam County where it started2,242 ha0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Jan | 0.6 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 7 Jan | 0.4 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 8 Jan | 1.0 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 9 Jan | 3.7 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 10 Jan | 3.0 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 11 Jan | 2.9 °C | 26 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 12 Jan | -0.6 °C | 11 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 13 Jan | 5.1 °C | 6 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 14 Jan | 3.9 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 15 Jan | 2.1 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 16 Jan | 0.7 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 17 Jan after | 2.6 °C | 5 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 18 Jan after | 5.3 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 19 Jan after | 3.9 °C | 12 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 20 Jan after | 4.3 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 21 Jan after | 4.6 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 22 Jan after | 3.2 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 23 Jan after | 5.1 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 24 Jan after | 5.9 °C | 15 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 25 Jan after | 3.0 °C | 22 % | 47 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 26 Jan after | 0.5 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very 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 14 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 7 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 56Every 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 Markam County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 January 2026 and 16 January 2026: 11 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 2,221 hectares (22.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Markam County (2,242 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 5.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 9, class Low.
- 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.