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PG · Papua New Guinea · –

Pomio District fire, September 2026 Pomio District, Kokopo District

Out · last detection 31 Oct 2026, 15:20 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2026 in Pomio District, Papua New Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,099 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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.

Burnt area
19,099ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
43days
19 Sept 2026 – 31 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Sept
2026
Heat detections
991
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
144MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept31 Oct
31 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

19 Sept 2026 · 64 MW · 11 20 Sept 2026 · 89 MW · 17 21 Sept 2026 · 93 MW · 15 22 Sept 2026 · 40 MW · 16 23 Sept 2026 · 35 MW · 17 24 Sept 2026 · 236 MW · 47 25 Sept 2026 · 397 MW · 76 26 Sept 2026 · 403 MW · 38 27 Sept 2026 · 47 MW · 25 28 Sept 2026 · 158 MW · 26 1 Oct 2026 · 9 MW · 3 2 Oct 2026 · 81 MW · 17 3 Oct 2026 · 23 MW · 21 6 Oct 2026 · 144 MW · 24 7 Oct 2026 · 110 MW · 17 8 Oct 2026 · 6 MW · 5 10 Oct 2026 · 46 MW · 11 11 Oct 2026 · 210 MW · 47 13 Oct 2026 · 6 MW · 5 14 Oct 2026 · 77 MW · 31 15 Oct 2026 · 476 MW · 55 16 Oct 2026 · 29 MW · 14 17 Oct 2026 · 521 MW · 59 18 Oct 2026 · 188 MW · 37 19 Oct 2026 · 164 MW · 71 20 Oct 2026 · 43 MW · 15 21 Oct 2026 · 227 MW · 34 22 Oct 2026 · 267 MW · 51 23 Oct 2026 · 83 MW · 12 24 Oct 2026 · 38 MW · 25 25 Oct 2026 · 75 MW · 22 26 Oct 2026 · 11 MW · 3 27 Oct 2026 · 265 MW · 60 28 Oct 2026 · 182 MW · 21 29 Oct 2026 · 194 MW · 43 30 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 31 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0
19 Sept 27 Sept 10 Oct 17 Oct 27 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
61km/h · peak gust
43%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.6 mm on 1 Nov.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,709 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 12% of the area of London (191 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. Pomio District where it started
    24,302 ha reached on 19 Sept
    2.1 %
  2. 175 ha reached on 25 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
19 Sept 28.7 °C 59 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Sept 28.3 °C 64 % 61 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
21 Sept 28.4 °C 62 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Sept 29.0 °C 58 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Sept 29.1 °C 59 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Sept 28.6 °C 62 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Sept 28.8 °C 61 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Sept 29.4 °C 56 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Sept 29.5 °C 59 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
28 Sept 30.3 °C 58 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Sept 30.6 °C 59 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
30 Sept 29.2 °C 63 % 49 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 18
1 Oct 28.4 °C 71 % 58 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 19
2 Oct 29.2 °C 66 % 61 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 19
3 Oct 30.1 °C 58 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Oct 30.3 °C 61 % 44 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 15
5 Oct 28.3 °C 70 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
6 Oct 30.2 °C 58 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
7 Oct 29.9 °C 61 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
8 Oct 30.7 °C 57 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
9 Oct 30.2 °C 61 % 34 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 11
10 Oct 30.2 °C 61 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
11 Oct 30.8 °C 58 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Oct 30.7 °C 57 % 50 km/h 4.0 mm Low 7
13 Oct 30.7 °C 62 % 47 km/h 0.9 mm Low 10
14 Oct 31.1 °C 56 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Oct 30.4 °C 55 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
16 Oct 30.4 °C 43 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Oct 30.9 °C 52 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Oct 30.4 °C 54 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Oct 31.4 °C 52 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Oct 31.0 °C 52 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Oct 31.7 °C 53 % 46 km/h 1.7 mm High 30
22 Oct 31.2 °C 53 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
23 Oct 31.0 °C 56 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
24 Oct 31.8 °C 52 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Oct 32.0 °C 54 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
26 Oct 31.6 °C 59 % 42 km/h 1.7 mm High 24
27 Oct 32.1 °C 51 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Oct 32.1 °C 52 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Oct 32.9 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
30 Oct 32.6 °C 55 % 42 km/h 1.4 mm High 28
31 Oct 31.4 °C 66 % 22 km/h 24.7 mm Very low 3
1 Nov after 31.2 °C 59 % 20 km/h 14.6 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Sept 2026
After · 4 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 1 November 2026 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1032 µg/m³
Optical depth0.68
17 Sept27 Sept7 Oct17 Oct27 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 · 991Every 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 Papua New Guinea

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pomio District fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 September 2026 to 31 October 2026 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 September 2026 to 30 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,099 hectares (191.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pomio District (24,302 ha, 2.1 %); Kokopo District (175 ha, 0.4 %).
Is the Pomio District fire still active?
No fire detections since 31 Oct 2026, 15:20 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 43 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Papua New Guinea (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.

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 5 November 2026.
  1. Page published (19,099 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
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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 September 2026 to 30 October 2026. 991 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.