Wakulla fire, May 2026 Wakulla
The fire started on 23 May 2026 in Wakulla, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,317 hectares, spread across a single county.
It is the 57th largest in Florida since 2016 (of 148 with a page). Number 232 in United States in 2026, of 423.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,317ha
- official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
- Duration
- 4days
- 23 May 2026 – 26 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 23 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 19
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 40MW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 27 May.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 508 ha in 2017, 1,026 ha in 2020, 230 ha in 2021, 517 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,274 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Wakulla where it started1,316 ha reached on 24 May0.8 %
Burnt area inside each county, 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.
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 May | 27.7 °C | 77 % | 34 km/h | 2.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 24 May | 27.6 °C | 76 % | 34 km/h | 6.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 25 May | 27.9 °C | 74 % | 37 km/h | 8.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 26 May | 28.1 °C | 77 % | 38 km/h | 14.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 27 May after | 28.0 °C | 75 % | 34 km/h | 3.9 mm | Very low 0 |
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 26 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 19Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,949 haSilver Lake WakullaJanuary 2026 · 5 days · 7 km away
- 3,102 haVilas LibertyMarch 2020 · 5 days · 34 km away
- 2,157 haClear Lake LeonMarch 2018 · 19 days · 34 km away
- 948 haLeonSeptember 2019 · 2 days · 34 km away
- 2,630 haLibertyMarch 2026 · 7 days · 36 km away
- 1,097 haLibertyAugust 2023 · 8 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Wakulla fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 May 2026 to 26 May 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 May 2026 to 23 May 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 1,317 hectares (13.2 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
- Which counties burned?
- The fire only entered Wakulla (1,316 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 74 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very low.
- 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.
Emergency number: 911
- NIFC · National Interagency Fire Center ↗
- InciWeb · Incident Information System ↗
- MTBS · Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity ↗
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 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.