Satellites first detected fire on 3 November 2026 in St. Mary, United States. It has been active for 6 days, with 38 heat detections and an area with fire of about 490 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 2 counties.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
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Burned area
satellite only
≈ 490ha
Estimated from hotspots: no perimeter has been published yet.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
3 Nov 2026 – 8 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate from the VIIRS pixels that saw fire. It will change when the perimeter is published.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
6days
From 3 Nov 2026 to today: still being detected.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 8 Nov 2026, 18:49 UTC
+− cross-check
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.
Start
satellite only
3 Nov 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
3 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only
38
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 63 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (NOAA-20)
Date
3 Nov 2026 – 8 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only
352MW
Total radiative power on 5 November 2026; hotspots that day: 14.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
5 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model
4.6FWI · very low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 0.
Source
WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
Date
3 Nov 2026, local noon
Model
ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
Weather during the fire
model
28.4°C · 62% RH
High of 28.4 °C and minimum humidity of 62% on 3 November 2026; gusts of 33 km/h on 3 November 2026.
Source
weather model at the fire’s grid cell
Date
3 Nov 2026 – 8 Nov 2026
Model
ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
log
Area: ≈ 406 → ≈ 490 ha.
log
Start date: 24 October 2026 → 3 November 2026.
log
Name: Iberia → St. Mary.
· reconstructedweather
Weather and FWI computed from the forecast (provisional until ERA5 arrives)
log
Last day with fire: 23 October 2026 → 3 November 2026.
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
NIFC has not yet published the perimeter of this fire. 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.
Is it still active?
No detections since 8 Nov 2026, 18:49 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.
The wind is blowing from the north-east and pushing to the south-west; no sharp shifts are expected until Thu 12, 11:00.
ECMWF IFS 0.25° at the centre of the fire · computed 9 Nov 2026, 14:57 UTC
Wed 11, 00:00, local time
First useful rain: 2.8 mm in 6 h
Chance of rain up to 38 % in those hours. It can slow the fire at the surface, but that does not mean it will go out.
Checked, no warning:✓ no wind shifts of more than 60°✓ nights recover humidity (peaks of 87 % or more)
Hour by hour, local time
Tap the strip to see each hour
Mean windGusts➤ where it blows toRelative humidityNight (8 pm to 8 am)Rain (mm) · chance in %
Where is it blowing? The next 48 h
geoBoundaries/United States Census Bureau, MAF/TIGER Database (Public Domain)
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.
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: VIIRS (NASA FIRMS); hotspots from the last 24 h: VIIRS from NASA FIRMS. Boundaries: geoBoundaries/United States Census Bureau, MAF/TIGER Database (Public Domain).
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
3 Nov8 Nov
Play back8 Nov 2026
How it evolved, day by day
3 Nov5 Nov7 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
28°high
33km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
Area with fire inside each county, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until NIFC publishes the official perimeter. 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)
3 Nov
28.4 °C
62 %
33 km/h
1.7 mm
Very low 5
4 Nov
26.4 °C
53 %
26 km/h
1.1 mm
Very low 3
5 Nov
26.3 °C
46 %
18 km/h
0.0 mm
Low 6
6 Nov
26.6 °C
37 %
27 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 13
7 Nov
25.0 °C
46 %
30 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 14
8 Nov
21.3 °C
38 %
27 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 14
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 4.6, a minimum humidity of 62% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 13.
FWI at the start4.6
Minimum humidity62 %
Days without rain0
this firechosen twinsrest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
Cottonmouth Fire, June 2016
1,840 ha3 daysFWI 1.1Min. humidity 61 %182 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.3 mm on 29 Jun.
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 13. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
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 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.
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 27 Oct 2026
After · 8 Nov 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 18 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak19µg/m³
Days over the guideline0days
PM1019µg/m³
Optical depth0.30
WHO 15
7 Oct10 Oct13 Oct16 Oct
GoodFairModeratePoorVery poorExtremely 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· 38Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.›
⬇ Download CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and time
Satellite
FRP (MW)
Lat
Lon
Frequently asked questions
How long did the St. Mary fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 3 November 2026 to 8 November 2026 (6 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: NIFC has not published it. Heat detections rebuild about 490 hectares with fire (4.9 km²).
Which counties burned?
The fire entered 2 counties: St. Mary (406 ha, 0.2 %); Iberia (84 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the St. Mary fire still active?
No fire detections since 8 Nov 2026, 18:49 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.4 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
What weather is expected at the fire over the next 72 hours?
The wind is blowing from the north-east and pushing to the south-west; no sharp shifts are expected until Thu 12, 11:00. First useful rain: 2.8 mm in 6 h (Wed 11, 00:00). Times are local time at the fire. ECMWF IFS forecast (Open-Meteo) computed 9 Nov 2026, 14:57 UTC; this is not an official warning.
Where does this data come from?
From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. 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.
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 errorHow we know this›
No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 490 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 38 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.