Ossès fire, February 2026 Ossès
The fire started on 25 February 2026 in Ossès, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 126 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 51th largest in Pyrénées-Atlantiques since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 87 in France in 2026, of 114.
Compare with…
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
- 126ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 25 Feb 2026 – 25 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 25 Feb
- 2026
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 83%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 27 Feb.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 123 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
126 ha2.9 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.
What burned
- Other natural land97 %
- Broadleaved forest3.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 83 %
- LIC La Nive FR7200786
- LIC Massif du Baygoura FR7200758
Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Feb | 23.5 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Feb after | 20.9 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 27 Feb after | 18.0 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 1.7 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 26 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 22 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)
Other fires nearby
- 1,074 haAhaxe-Alciette-BascassanFebruary 2019 · 8 days · 19 km away
- 1,120 haHostaFebruary 2019 · 14 days · 22 km away
- 2,916 haMendiveFebruary 2019 · 9 days · 23 km away
- 1,965 haLecumberry14 February 2019 · 9 days · 26 km away
- 1,379 haEstérençubyFebruary 2021 · 6 days · 26 km away
- 1,316 haAussurucqFebruary 2026 · 7 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ossès fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 25 February 2026 and 25 February 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 126 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ossès (126 ha, 2.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Ossès and came within 2.5 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of France (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 · 18 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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 ADM5 (Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0). 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.