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PK · Pakistan · –

Shorkot fire, October 2026 Shorkot

Dying down · last detection 4 Nov 2026, 09:00 UTC

The fire started on 23 October 2026 in Shorkot, Pakistan, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,271 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

Number 17 in Pakistan in 2026, of 28.

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.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.5 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: Shorkot · 2025Shorkot · 2025

Is it still active?

No detections since 4 Nov 2026, 09:00 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Wind, humidity and rain for the next 72 h

Burnt area
1,271ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
23 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
23 Oct
2026
Heat detections
23
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
20MW
detected power per day, on average

The next 72 hours

The wind is almost calm (3 km/h) and no sharp shifts are expected until Sun 8, 11:00.

ECMWF IFS 0.25° at the centre of the fire · computed 5 Nov 2026, 05:53 UTC

No sharp changes in the next 72 h

No strong wind shifts and no dry nights. No warnings does not mean the fire will go out: in this weather it can carry on as it is.

Checked, no warning: no wind shifts of more than 60° nights recover humidity (peaks of 77 % or more) no useful rain expected (0.0 mm in 72 h)

Hour by hour, local time

Tap the strip to see each hour

Mean wind Gusts where it blows to Relative humidity Night (8 pm to 8 am) Rain (mm) · chance in %

Where is it blowing? The next 48 h

geoBoundaries/Pathways Data Pvt. Ltd., https//www.pbs.gov.pk/content/population-census/ (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0)

At this hour

Places the fan reaches

    Is it heading my way?

    We compare your point with the fan for each hour. Your location never leaves your device.

    or tap the map

    This is not an official warning. It is a global model forecast with cells of about 25 km, at the centre of the fire: it cannot see valley winds or the winds the fire itself creates. The fan shows where the wind blows, not where the fire will spread. If in doubt, follow what the authorities say.

    Emergencies · Pakistan 1122 · 16 Emergency number and official warnings

    Forecast: ECMWF IFS 0.25° (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), served by our own Open-Meteo instance; the chance of rain comes from the ECMWF ensemble. Variables: wind and gusts at 10 m, wind at 850 hPa, relative humidity and temperature at 2 m, rain. Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0).

    Fire: GWIS / Copernicus (reconstructed from VIIRS) (CC BY 4.0); hotspots from the last 24 h: VIIRS from NASA FIRMS. Boundaries: geoBoundaries/Pathways Data Pvt. Ltd., https//www.pbs.gov.pk/content/population-census/ (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0).

    How it is worked out: wind shift = a change of more than 60° in 6 h or less, with at least 15 km/h before and after; no overnight recovery = peak humidity between 8 pm and 8 am stays below 55 %; useful rain = 2 mm or more in 6 h. The fan opens 18° plus however much the wind varies within ±3 h and reaches 25 km beyond the edge of the fire: one model cell, not a rate of spread. Methodology

    Where it burned

    HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Oct4 Nov
    4 Nov 2026

    How it evolved, day by day

    23 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 24 Oct 2026 · 9 MW · 1 26 Oct 2026 · 5 MW · 1 27 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 29 Oct 2026 · 6 MW · 1 30 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 31 Oct 2026 · 13 MW · 3 1 Nov 2026 · 11 MW · 3 2 Nov 2026 · 45 MW · 7 3 Nov 2026 · 12 MW · 2 4 Nov 2026 · 56 MW · 5
    23 Oct 27 Oct 31 Oct 4 Nov

    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
    20km/h · peak gust
    34%lowest humidity

    It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

    How big is it?

    10 km
    It burned the equivalent of 0.8% of the area of London (13 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. Shorkot where it started
      1,276 ha reached on 23 Oct
      1.0 %

    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)
    26 Oct 28.3 °C 43 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
    27 Oct 28.6 °C 44 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
    28 Oct 28.7 °C 43 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
    29 Oct 29.5 °C 34 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
    30 Oct 28.3 °C 43 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
    31 Oct 28.8 °C 45 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
    1 Nov 29.0 °C 43 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
    2 Nov 29.7 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
    3 Nov 28.6 °C 46 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
    4 Nov 29.2 °C 46 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
    5 Nov after 28.9 °C 46 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

    Before and after, from space

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

    Before · 16 Oct 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 22 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 201 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 129: 8.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

    PM2.5 peak201 µg/m³
    Days over the guideline12 days
    PM10214 µg/m³
    Optical depth1.02
    22 Oct25 Oct28 Oct31 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 · 23Every 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 Pakistan

    Frequently asked questions

    How long did the Shorkot fire last?
    According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 October 2026 to 4 November 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 October 2026 to 4 November 2026.
    How much area did it burn?
    The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,271 hectares (12.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
    Which municipalities burned?
    The fire only entered Shorkot (1,276 ha, 1.0 %).
    Is the Shorkot fire still active?
    No fire detections since 4 Nov 2026, 09:00 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
    What was the weather like?
    During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 20 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
    What weather is expected at the fire over the next 72 hours?
    The wind is almost calm (3 km/h) and no sharp shifts are expected until Sun 8, 11:00. No strong wind shifts, dry nights or useful rain are expected. Times are local time at the fire. ECMWF IFS forecast (Open-Meteo) computed 5 Nov 2026, 05:53 UTC; this is not an official warning.
    Where does this data come from?
    From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Pakistan (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: 1122 · 16 · Emergency number and official warnings

    Satellite cross-check

    History of this page · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 3 November 2026.
    1. Area: ≈ 1,120 → ≈ 1,078 ha.
    2. Start date: 24 October 2026 → 25 October 2026.
    3. Page published (≈ 1,120 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
    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 1122 · 16.

    How we know this
    • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
    • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 October 2026 to 4 November 2026. 23 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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.