Morin Dawa Daur fire, 7 April 2026 Morin Dawa Daur
The fire started on 7 April 2026 in Morin Dawa Daur, China, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,066 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 38th largest in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region since 2016 (of 370 with a page). Number 143 in China in 2026, of 929.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.5 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
- 4,066ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 7 Apr 2026 – 9 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 7 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 75
- in a single hotspot: 24 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 440MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 17 Apr.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 382 ha in 2016, 2,136 ha in 2017, 197 ha in 2018, 57 ha in 2020, 409 ha in 2023, 284 ha in 2024, 44 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,657 ha that had burned before.
- 1,158 ha Morin Dawa Daur fire, March 2017 1,656 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 162 ha Morin Dawa Daur fire, March 2017 1,291 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Morin Dawa Daur fire, April 2017 1,868 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Morin Dawa Daur where it started4,039 ha0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr | 6.5 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 3 Apr | 6.0 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 4 Apr | 7.9 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 5 Apr | 5.1 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 6 Apr | 5.0 °C | 38 % | 65 km/h | 2.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 7 Apr | 10.2 °C | 24 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 8 Apr | 15.7 °C | 24 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 9 Apr | 9.4 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 10 Apr after | 7.3 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 11 Apr after | 8.8 °C | 38 % | 46 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very low 2 |
| 12 Apr after | 6.8 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 13 Apr after | 8.0 °C | 20 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 14 Apr after | 10.4 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 15 Apr after | 13.3 °C | 27 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 16 Apr after | 13.7 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 17 Apr after | 10.4 °C | 33 % | 45 km/h | 4.2 mm | Very low 1 |
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 10 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 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)
Detections table · 75Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,850 haMorin Dawa Daur13 April 2026 · 6 days · 12 km away
- 8,010 haMorin Dawa Daur13 April 2026 · 6 days · 16 km away
- 3,807 haNehe City7 April 2026 · 3 days · 28 km away
- 3,943 haNehe City16 April 2026 · 3 days · 34 km away
- 9,838 haNehe City12 October 2026 · 5 days · 35 km away
- 3,536 haGannan County14 October 2026 · 3 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Morin Dawa Daur fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 April 2026 and 9 April 2026: 3 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 4,066 hectares (40.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Morin Dawa Daur (4,039 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 15.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Moderate.
- 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.