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SY · Syria · –

Ras Al Ain fire, 23 October 2026 Ras Al Ain, Tal Tamer

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2026, 10:30 UTC

Satellites first detected fire on 23 October 2026 in Ras Al Ain, Syria. It was active for 5 days, with 20 heat detections and an area with fire of about 280 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 2 municipalities.

The power measured by the satellite is low (6.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Copernicus has not yet published the burnt perimeter, which takes a few days to measure on satellite imagery. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). When the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.

Area with fire
≈ 280ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
5days
23 Oct 2026 – 27 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
23 Oct
2026
Heat detections
20
in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
21MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Oct27 Oct
27 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

23 Oct 2026 · 49 MW · 12 24 Oct 2026 · 17 MW · 5 25 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 26 Oct 2026 · 12 MW · 3 27 Oct 2026 · 7 MW · 3
23 Oct 24 Oct 25 Oct 26 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

30°high
45km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 28.1 mm on 28 Oct.

What happened to each town

  1. 210 ha reached on 23 Oct
    0.1 %
  2. Tal Tamer where it started
    70 ha reached on 23 Oct
    0.1 %

Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. 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) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
23 Oct 29.2 °C 24 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Oct 29.3 °C 23 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Oct 28.5 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Oct 29.4 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
27 Oct 29.5 °C 30 % 45 km/h 1.3 mm Very high 47
28 Oct after 22.9 °C 58 % 37 km/h 28.1 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 23.7, a minimum humidity of 24% and 9 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 23.7
Minimum humidity 24 %
Days without rain 9
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Lice fire, June 2016
2,239 ha 9 days FWI 25.8 Min. humidity 24 % 193 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.2 mm on 6 Jul.

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
180 ha
median area
7 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 9 of 15 had it)

It was 1.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 5 days, against 1 day.

Only 3 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 15, 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 3.2 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

28.1 mmfirst rain
28 Octthe day after it ended
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 Oct, and on 28 Oct 28.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 9 of 15, with a median of 3.2 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 · 16 Oct 2026
After · 3 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 13 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak40 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth1.68
5 Oct8 Oct11 Oct14 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 · 20Every 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 Syria

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ras Al Ain fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 23 October 2026 to 27 October 2026 (5 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?
There is no official perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 280 hectares with fire (2.8 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ras Al Ain (210 ha, 0.1 %); Tal Tamer (70 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Ras Al Ain fire still active?
No fire detections since 27 Oct 2026, 10:30 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Syria (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: 15. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 180 ha; 7 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 3 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 15, 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 3.2 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.

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 9 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: ≈ 182 → ≈ 280 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 26 October 2026 → 27 October 2026.
  3. Start date: 18 October 2026 → 23 October 2026.
  4. Last day with fire: 24 October 2026 → 26 October 2026.
  5. Area: ≈ 196 → ≈ 182 ha.
  6. Start date: 17 October 2026 → 18 October 2026.
  7. Area: ≈ 154 → ≈ 196 ha.
  8. Area: ≈ 168 → ≈ 154 ha.
  9. Start date: 15 October 2026 → 17 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.

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How we know this
  • No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 280 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
  • Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 20 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • 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 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 slightly from each country’s official figure.