Mirditë fire, 21 August 2026 Mirditë
The fire started on 21 August 2026 in Mirditë, Albania, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 117 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 27th largest in Lezhë since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 41 in Albania in 2026, of 43.
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.
- Burnt area
- 117ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 21 Aug 2026 – 21 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2026
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7 ha in 2022, 8 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mirditë where it started117 ha0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.
What burned
- Scrub and transitional woodland73 %
- Broadleaved forest18 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub6.7 %
- Agricultural areas1.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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 Aug | 34.8 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 23 Aug after | 36.5 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Aug after | 35.3 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Aug after | 34.8 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Aug after | 36.0 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Aug after | 37.7 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Aug after | 35.9 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Aug after | 33.6 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 23 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mirditë fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 21 August 2026 and 21 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 117 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mirditë (117 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Albania (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: 128 · 112
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 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic). 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.