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Tenali fire, April 2026 Kollipara, Kollur, Tenali

Out · last detection 14 May 2026, 07:29 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2026 in Tenali, India, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,388 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Andhra Pradesh since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 20 in India in 2026, of 65.

Burnt area
9,388ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
20 Apr 2026 – 13 May 2026
Municipalities hit
5
subdistricts
Started on
20 Apr
2026
Heat detections
202
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 May 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr13 May

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930124568910111314

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

42°high
40km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 23 May.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,851 ha in 2016, 1,111 ha in 2017, 925 ha in 2018, 3,184 ha in 2019, 3,472 ha in 2020, 2,835 ha in 2021, 499 ha in 2022, 2,822 ha in 2023, 3,133 ha in 2024, 3,675 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,387 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kollipara
    7,861 ha reached on 20 Apr
    41 %
  2. Kollur
    762 ha reached on 1 May
    4.0 %
  3. Tenali where it started
    441 ha reached on 14 Apr
    6.0 %
  4. Vemuru
    332 ha reached on 19 Apr
    3.1 %
  5. Duggirala
    45 ha reached on 9 May
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

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)
14 Apr 38.3 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr 38.3 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Apr 36.8 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Apr 38.4 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Apr 38.0 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Apr 38.6 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Apr 38.3 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Apr 38.8 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Apr 38.6 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Apr 38.4 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Apr 38.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
25 Apr 38.5 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Apr 39.1 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Apr 39.4 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Apr 38.4 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Apr 38.4 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Apr 40.0 °C 41 % 37 km/h 1.0 mm High 33
1 May 41.9 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 44
2 May 40.7 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 May 39.4 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 May 40.0 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.7 mm High 36
5 May 37.3 °C 49 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
6 May 34.8 °C 53 % 29 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 15
7 May 37.0 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
8 May 37.5 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
9 May 37.5 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
10 May 38.0 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
11 May 38.4 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 May 38.7 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
13 May 39.7 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 May after 38.9 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 38
15 May after 40.5 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 May after 39.1 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 May after 39.3 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 May after 39.7 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 May after 41.5 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 May after 44.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 May after 44.7 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 May after 42.1 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 58
23 May after 42.7 °C 27 % 47 km/h 1.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Apr 2026
After · 20 May 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 15 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak49 µg/m³
Days over the guideline17 days
PM1082 µg/m³
Optical depth1.09
1213141516171819202122232425262728293012345678910111213141516
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 · 202Every 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 India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tenali fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 April 2026 and 13 May 2026: 24 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,388 hectares (93.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Kollipara (7,861 ha, 41 %); Kollur (762 ha, 4.0 %); Tenali (441 ha, 6.0 %); Vemuru (332 ha, 3.1 %); Duggirala (45 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.9 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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: 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.

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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 112.

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.