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ID · Indonesia · –

Merauke fire, 3 October 2026 Merauke

Dying down · last detection 8 Nov 2026, 16:56 UTC

The fire started on 3 October 2026 in Merauke, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,370 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

We are reviewing this page: some of its data look inconsistent (the place, the dates or the area), so treat them with caution.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in October 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Merauke · 2023Merauke · 2026Merauke · 2026Merauke · 2026

Is it still active?

No detections since 8 Nov 2026, 16:56 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. 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.

Wind, humidity and rain for the next 72 h

Burnt area
4,370ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
3 Oct 2026 – 8 Nov 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
3 Oct
2026
Heat detections
360
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
60MW
detected power per day, on average

The next 72 hours

The wind is blowing from the south-east and pushing to the north-west; no sharp shifts are expected until Fri 13, 02:00.

ECMWF IFS 0.25° at the centre of the fire · computed 9 Nov 2026, 14:57 UTC

Thu 12, 07:00, local time

First useful rain: 2.7 mm in 6 h

Chance of rain up to 82 % in those hours. It can slow the fire at the surface, but that does not mean it will go out.

Checked, no warning: no wind shifts of more than 60° nights recover humidity (peaks of 96 % or more)

Hour by hour, local time

Tap the strip to see each hour

Mean wind Gusts where it blows to Relative humidity Night (8 pm to 8 am) Rain (mm) · chance in %

Where is it blowing? The next 48 h

geoBoundaries/Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS - Statistics Indonesia), World Food Programme, OCHA ROAP (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO))

At this hour

Places the fan reaches

    Is it heading my way?

    We compare your point with the fan for each hour. Your location never leaves your device.

    or tap the map

    This is not an official warning. It is a global model forecast with cells of about 25 km, at the centre of the fire: it cannot see valley winds or the winds the fire itself creates. The fan shows where the wind blows, not where the fire will spread. If in doubt, follow what the authorities say.

    Emergencies · Indonesia 112 Emergency number and official warnings

    Forecast: ECMWF IFS 0.25° (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), served by our own Open-Meteo instance; the chance of rain comes from the ECMWF ensemble. Variables: wind and gusts at 10 m, wind at 850 hPa, relative humidity and temperature at 2 m, rain. Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0).

    Fire: GWIS / Copernicus (reconstructed from VIIRS) (CC BY 4.0); hotspots from the last 24 h: VIIRS from NASA FIRMS. Boundaries: geoBoundaries/Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS - Statistics Indonesia), World Food Programme, OCHA ROAP (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)).

    How it is worked out: wind shift = a change of more than 60° in 6 h or less, with at least 15 km/h before and after; no overnight recovery = peak humidity between 8 pm and 8 am stays below 55 %; useful rain = 2 mm or more in 6 h. The fan opens 18° plus however much the wind varies within ±3 h and reaches 25 km beyond the edge of the fire: one model cell, not a rate of spread. Methodology

    Where it burned

    HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Oct8 Nov
    8 Nov 2026

    How it evolved, day by day

    3 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 4 Oct 2026 · 5 MW · 1 5 Oct 2026 · 1 MW · 1 6 Oct 2026 · 68 MW · 16 7 Oct 2026 · 19 MW · 2 10 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 11 Oct 2026 · 242 MW · 36 12 Oct 2026 · 150 MW · 23 13 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 14 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 16 Oct 2026 · 74 MW · 10 17 Oct 2026 · 22 MW · 2 18 Oct 2026 · 61 MW · 13 19 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 20 Oct 2026 · 14 MW · 7 21 Oct 2026 · 46 MW · 14 22 Oct 2026 · 6 MW · 4 23 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 24 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 25 Oct 2026 · 1 MW · 1 26 Oct 2026 · 21 MW · 5 27 Oct 2026 · 5 MW · 5 28 Oct 2026 · 39 MW · 9 29 Oct 2026 · 22 MW · 4 30 Oct 2026 · 4 MW · 2 31 Oct 2026 · 5 MW · 2 1 Nov 2026 · 16 MW · 10 2 Nov 2026 · 109 MW · 27 3 Nov 2026 · 60 MW · 22 4 Nov 2026 · 216 MW · 35 5 Nov 2026 · 279 MW · 57 6 Nov 2026 · 33 MW · 18 7 Nov 2026 · 52 MW · 23 8 Nov 2026 · 47 MW · 11
    3 Oct 12 Oct 20 Oct 27 Oct 5 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

    35°high
    45km/h · peak gust
    37%lowest humidity

    It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

    This area had burned before

    23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 416 ha in 2019, 865 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,017 ha that had burned before.

    How big is it?

    10 km
    It burned the equivalent of 2.8% of the area of London (44 km² against 1,583 km²).

    London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

    This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

    What happened to each town

    1. Merauke where it started
      5,456 ha reached on 3 Oct
      0.1 %

    Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. 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)
    3 Oct 30.3 °C 58 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
    4 Oct 31.5 °C 54 % 44 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
    5 Oct 32.1 °C 53 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
    6 Oct 31.9 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
    7 Oct 31.5 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
    8 Oct 33.5 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
    9 Oct 32.0 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
    10 Oct 32.2 °C 54 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
    11 Oct 32.6 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
    12 Oct 31.8 °C 50 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
    13 Oct 32.7 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
    14 Oct 31.9 °C 57 % 36 km/h 1.2 mm High 24
    15 Oct 31.9 °C 58 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
    16 Oct 32.6 °C 50 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
    17 Oct 31.8 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
    18 Oct 32.2 °C 52 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
    19 Oct 31.9 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
    20 Oct 32.0 °C 57 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
    21 Oct 33.7 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
    22 Oct 32.7 °C 57 % 38 km/h 0.9 mm High 28
    23 Oct 32.8 °C 55 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
    24 Oct 32.6 °C 61 % 30 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 14
    25 Oct 33.4 °C 53 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
    26 Oct 33.6 °C 55 % 34 km/h 1.2 mm High 23
    27 Oct 33.1 °C 50 % 33 km/h 1.0 mm High 28
    28 Oct 33.3 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
    29 Oct 34.7 °C 51 % 31 km/h 3.9 mm Moderate 21
    30 Oct 33.4 °C 56 % 32 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 12
    31 Oct 32.6 °C 59 % 36 km/h 2.7 mm Low 10
    1 Nov 33.7 °C 57 % 28 km/h 2.9 mm Low 6
    2 Nov 32.8 °C 56 % 28 km/h 1.4 mm Low 9
    3 Nov 32.3 °C 58 % 32 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 17
    4 Nov 34.1 °C 52 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 12
    5 Nov 34.3 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
    6 Nov 34.3 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
    7 Nov 34.2 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
    8 Nov 35.1 °C 51 % 30 km/h 4.1 mm Moderate 19

    Before and after, from space

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

    Before · 26 Sept 2026
    After · 8 Nov 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 13 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 267 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 119: 7.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

    PM2.5 peak267 µg/m³
    Days over the guideline17 days
    PM10275 µg/m³
    Optical depth3.78
    1 Oct5 Oct9 Oct13 Oct17 Oct
    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 · 360Every 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 Merauke fire last?
    According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 October 2026 to 8 November 2026 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 October 2026 to 8 November 2026.
    How much area did it burn?
    The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,370 hectares (43.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
    Which municipalities burned?
    The fire only entered Merauke (5,456 ha, 0.1 %).
    Is the Merauke fire still active?
    No fire detections since 8 Nov 2026, 16:56 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
    What was the weather like?
    During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
    What weather is expected at the fire over the next 72 hours?
    The wind is blowing from the south-east and pushing to the north-west; no sharp shifts are expected until Fri 13, 02:00. First useful rain: 2.7 mm in 6 h (Thu 12, 07:00). Times are local time at the fire. ECMWF IFS forecast (Open-Meteo) computed 9 Nov 2026, 14:57 UTC; this is not an official warning.
    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 · Emergency number and official warnings

    Satellite cross-check

    History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
    1. Area: 4,186 → 4,301 ha.
    2. Area: 1,646 → 4,186 ha.

    RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

    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.

    How we know this
    • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
    • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 October 2026 to 8 November 2026. 360 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
    • We have not matched this page with any official record.
    • Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.

    How we build fire pages: methodology

    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.