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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.

51,952 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. 9,290 MW Brazil 1,376 detections · 3.1°S, 54.2°W
  2. 8,486 MW Mozambique 616 detections · 19.0°S, 35.1°E
  3. 5,288 MW Indonesia 395 detections · 3.3°S, 105.2°E
  4. 4,922 MW Angola 183 detections · 14.1°S, 21.2°E
  5. 4,785 MW Brazil 417 detections · 4.1°S, 55.0°W
  6. 4,478 MW Brazil 395 detections · 6.1°S, 53.0°W
  7. 4,280 MW Brazil 313 detections · 3.9°S, 54.2°W
  8. 3,985 MW Brazil 244 detections · 7.9°S, 55.0°W
  9. 3,583 MW Australia 119 detections · 15.9°S, 135.2°E
  10. 3,540 MW Brazil 244 detections · 3.2°S, 59.1°W
  11. 3,505 MW Brazil 410 detections · 3.2°S, 54.8°W
  12. 3,283 MW Brazil 49 detections · 10.3°S, 49.9°W
  13. 3,204 MW Mozambique 258 detections · 16.9°S, 33.8°E
  14. 2,812 MW Papua New Guinea 153 detections · 8.9°S, 142.1°E
  15. 2,734 MW Brazil 210 detections · 3.7°S, 59.3°W
  16. 2,726 MW Near Harare 213 detections
  17. 2,635 MW Sudan 312 detections · 10.2°N, 29.0°E
  18. 2,613 MW Zambia 197 detections · 13.2°S, 24.0°E
  19. 2,541 MW Mozambique 185 detections · 20.0°S, 33.1°E
  20. 2,404 MW People's Republic of China 573 detections · 47.0°N, 127.1°E
  21. 2,366 MW Niger 224 detections · 13.1°N, 13.8°E
  22. 2,322 MW Madagascar 183 detections · 15.1°S, 48.1°E
  23. 2,250 MW Papua New Guinea 288 detections · 4.1°S, 144.2°E
  24. 2,236 MW Sudan 331 detections · 10.9°N, 30.1°E
  25. 2,122 MW Zambia 148 detections · 14.0°S, 24.1°E
  26. 2,061 MW Indonesia 171 detections · 8.0°S, 113.8°E
  27. 2,041 MW South Sudan 238 detections · 10.0°N, 25.0°E
  28. 2,001 MW Angola 97 detections · 14.9°S, 21.1°E
  29. 1,979 MW Brazil 108 detections · 3.7°S, 59.7°W
  30. 1,973 MW Australia 273 detections · 18.1°S, 131.6°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.