Powys fire, 8 August 2026 Powys, Blaenau Gwent
The fire started on 8 August 2026 in Powys, United Kingdom, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 701 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 7th largest in Wales since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 8 in United Kingdom in 2026, of 21.
- Burnt area
- 701ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 8 Aug 2026 – 8 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 494
- in a single hotspot: 93 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 344MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 417 ha in 2022, 48 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 422 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Powys where it started665 ha reached on 8 Aug0.1 %
-
27 ha reached on 10 Aug0.2 %
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 land97 %
- Other land cover3.0 %
Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 90 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Aug | 21.7 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Aug after | 24.5 °C | 40 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Aug after | 22.5 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 11 Aug after | 25.2 °C | 43 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Aug after | 22.0 °C | 47 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Aug after | 21.2 °C | 52 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 17 Aug after | 21.7 °C | 59 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 Aug after | 19.1 °C | 63 % | 48 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 11 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.2 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 · 494Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 788 haPowys23 March 2022 · 4 days · 1 km away
- 360 haCaerphillyMarch 2025 · 1 day · 10 km away
- 1,470 haMerthyr Tydfil24 March 2022 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 1,200 haPowys11 April 2020 · 6 days · 15 km away
- 1,017 haMerthyr TydfilApril 2026 · 1 day · 15 km away
- 546 haMerthyr TydfilApril 2017 · 3 days · 15 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Powys fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2026 and 8 August 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 701 hectares (7.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Powys (665 ha, 0.1 %); Blaenau Gwent (27 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 21.7 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, 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.