Powys fire, August 2025 Powys
The fire started on 25 August 2025 in Powys, United Kingdom, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 105 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 25th largest in Wales since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 12 in United Kingdom in 2025, of 12.
The power measured by the satellite is low (2.2 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
- 105ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 25 Aug 2025 – 26 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 2
- in a single hotspot: 2 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.0 mm on 27 Aug.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 94 ha in 2022.
What happened to each town
-
Powys where it started103 ha reached on 26 Aug0.0 %
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
- Other natural land99 %
- Broadleaved forest1.0 %
Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 100 %
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 Aug | 23.8 °C | 42 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Aug | 18.1 °C | 60 % | 50 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 7 |
| 27 Aug after | 17.5 °C | 55 % | 49 km/h | 10.0 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 24 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 13 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)
Detections table · 2Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Powys fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 25 August 2025 and 26 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 105 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Powys (103 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.8 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United Kingdom (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: 999 · 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 ADM3 (Open Government Licence v3.0). 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.