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DZ · Algeria · –

Ouled Rabah fire, 15 August 2026 أولاد رابح · Ouled Rabah, Sidi Maarouf

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2026, 13:46 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Ouled Rabah, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 189 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 53th largest in Jijel since 2016 (of 110 with a page). Number 142 in Algeria in 2026, of 197.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.2 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: Taskriout · 2022El Kennar Nouchfi · 2020Grarem Gouga · 2026Chekfa · 2026

Burnt area
189ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 13days
15 Aug 2026 – 27 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
15 Aug
2026
Heat detections
5
in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
7MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug27 Aug
19 Aug 2026

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 2026 · 0 MW · 1 18 Aug 2026 · 3 MW · 1 19 Aug 2026 · 19 MW · 3
15 Aug 18 Aug 19 Aug

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

42°high
58km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 1 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ouled Rabah أولاد رابح 10,681 inhabitants · 4.6 km from the centre where it started
    137 ha reached on 15 Aug
    1.8 %
  2. Sidi Maarouf سيدي معروف 21,662 inhabitants · 3.9 km from the centre
    53 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.8 %

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 land76 %
  • Mixed forest22 %
  • Agricultural areas2.1 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
15 Aug 33.1 °C 33 % 30 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 19
16 Aug 32.8 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
17 Aug 34.1 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Aug 32.4 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug 34.6 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Aug 33.3 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Aug 33.6 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
22 Aug 36.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug 36.6 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Aug 39.9 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 55
25 Aug 37.4 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Aug 41.1 °C 10 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
27 Aug 41.6 °C 12 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
28 Aug after 37.1 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Aug after 36.5 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 45
30 Aug after 35.7 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Aug after 35.8 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm High 34
1 Sept after 33.8 °C 28 % 29 km/h 1.0 mm High 27

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 19.4, a minimum humidity of 33% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 19.4
Minimum humidity 33 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Taskriout fire, October 2022
104 ha 1 day FWI 20.5 Min. humidity 34 % 83 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.5 mm on 4 Nov.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
237 ha
median area
10 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 22 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (189 ha against a median of 237 ha) and lasted 13 days, against 3 days.

In 8 of 30, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.4 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

1.0 mmfirst rain
1 Sept5 days after it ended
58km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 Aug, and on 1 Sept 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 22 of 30, with a median of 2.4 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2026
After · 3 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 16 August 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
PM1032 µg/m³
Optical depth0.39
13 Aug15 Aug17 Aug
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 · 5Every 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 Algeria

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ouled Rabah fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (15 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 27 August 2026 (13 days from 15 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 189 hectares (1.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouled Rabah (137 ha, 1.8 %); Sidi Maarouf (53 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 3.9 km of the centre of Sidi Maarouf, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 30. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 237 ha; 10 % went past 1,000 ha. In 8 of 30, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.4 mm.

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: 14 · 1021 · 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.

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 14 · 1021.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 5 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.