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Active fires around the world

Fire activity detected by NASA satellites over the past 24 hours, from the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). Each mark is a cluster of thermal detections — most are vegetation fires, and the biggest are what put smoke and haze into the sky across whole regions.

42,850 satellite fire detections in the past 24 hours, concentrated in 120 areas.

Where they are burning

areas of fire activity, past 24 h (NASA VIIRS detections; ring size follows intensity) Natural Earth · NASA FIRMS

Most intense fire activity

  1. 8,443 MW Indonesia 1,243 detections · 3.1°S, 112.0°E
  2. 6,810 MW Mozambique 606 detections · 19.0°S, 35.2°E
  3. 6,343 MW Australia 163 detections · 17.6°S, 133.2°E
  4. 4,921 MW Papua New Guinea 411 detections · 8.8°S, 142.0°E
  5. 4,744 MW Indonesia 928 detections · 2.9°S, 113.0°E
  6. 4,612 MW Indonesia 680 detections · 2.8°S, 110.8°E
  7. 4,121 MW Indonesia 155 detections · 4.0°S, 138.0°E
  8. 3,712 MW Madagascar 195 detections · 16.1°S, 45.2°E
  9. 2,975 MW Indonesia 717 detections · 2.2°S, 114.1°E
  10. 2,922 MW Indonesia 807 detections · 7.0°S, 140.9°E
  11. 2,812 MW Indonesia 267 detections · 1.9°S, 104.2°E
  12. 2,639 MW Papua New Guinea 654 detections · 7.8°S, 141.1°E
  13. 2,412 MW Indonesia 220 detections · 3.2°S, 105.1°E
  14. 1,923 MW Papua New Guinea 229 detections · 5.2°S, 141.9°E
  15. 1,917 MW Mozambique 242 detections · 17.1°S, 38.1°E
  16. 1,889 MW Near Harare 158 detections
  17. 1,851 MW Angola 69 detections · 14.1°S, 21.1°E
  18. 1,733 MW Niger 160 detections · 13.0°N, 13.8°E
  19. 1,716 MW Indonesia 136 detections · 7.8°S, 112.7°E
  20. 1,690 MW Sudan 154 detections · 9.9°N, 24.9°E
  21. 1,686 MW Mozambique 152 detections · 18.7°S, 35.9°E
  22. 1,673 MW Mozambique 212 detections · 18.0°S, 36.2°E
  23. 1,644 MW Papua New Guinea 133 detections · 8.9°S, 141.1°E
  24. 1,591 MW Australia 103 detections · 14.8°S, 134.9°E
  25. 1,514 MW Sudan 271 detections · 9.9°N, 24.0°E
  26. 1,488 MW Indonesia 143 detections · 1.9°S, 110.2°E
  27. 1,449 MW Indonesia 93 detections · 3.1°S, 104.2°E
  28. 1,427 MW Indonesia 129 detections · 1.4°S, 104.2°E
  29. 1,320 MW Australia 77 detections · 19.6°S, 142.9°E
  30. 1,273 MW Malawi 135 detections · 11.9°S, 33.9°E

How to read this map

A detection is not a confirmed wildfire

Each detection is a satellite pixel — roughly 375 metres across — that was significantly hotter than its surroundings when a satellite passed overhead. Most are vegetation fires, but the same signature comes from gas flares, volcanoes, and agricultural burning, and NASA publishes the data with exactly that caveat. That is why this page counts detections and never claims each mark is a wildfire. Low-confidence detections are excluded.

Megawatts, and where haze comes from

The intensity figure is fire radiative power: the heat output NASA measures for each detection, summed across an area. It is the best single proxy for how much is burning — and how much smoke is being made. When one region tops this list for days, that is usually the fire season driving the haze downwind of it. Detections reach this page within a few hours of the satellite seeing them.

Our fire coverage

Fire data: NASA FIRMS (LANCE near-real-time VIIRS detections), provided as is. Basemap: Natural Earth. Major Global News is not affiliated with either, and this page is not an alerting or emergency service — for conditions where you live, use your national agency.