Skip to content
worldfires
MN · Mongolia · →

Matad fire, September 2026 Matad

Out · last measured on 14 Sept 2026

The fire started on 14 September 2026 in Matad, Mongolia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,102 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Dornod since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 11 in Mongolia in 2026, of 11.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks them up automatically when they are available.

Burnt area
2,102ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
14 Sept 2026 – 14 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2026
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

21°high
43km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 19 Sept.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 882 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Matad where it started
    2,093 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)
14 Sept 21.1 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept after 21.8 °C 20 % 8 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Sept after 28.4 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Sept after 33.0 °C 11 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
18 Sept after 30.9 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Sept after 17.5 °C 48 % 37 km/h 3.3 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2026
After · 21 Sept 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 17 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1052 µg/m³
Optical depth0.27
121314151617
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mongolia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Matad fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2026 and 14 September 2026: 1 day 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 2,102 hectares (21.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Matad (2,093 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 21.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mongolia (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: 105 · 101

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 105 · 101.

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.