FeuxFrance
2026 season Β· Metropolitan France
France has already burned 7.1 times more than usual
96,591 hectares
gone up in smoke since 1 January, against 13,698 in an average year on the same date.
Measured area, not estimated: EFFIS maps the actual perimeters above 30 hectares. Figure from September 8, covering fires up to September 2.
Higher totals circulate during the season, they do not count the same thing.
Each square is a 25 km area where satellites detected fire in 2026, month by month. The real map
What is burning right now
All active firesHotspots from the past 2 days, grouped by proximity. Last satellite pass processed about 8 hours ago. A cluster is not a declared fire: for instructions, the reference is your prefecture, the fire service and FR-Alert.
A figure on its own says nothing. Here is what usually burns by the same date.
7.1 times the area that usually burns by this date.
And +57 % above the previous worst, 2022.
Today is September 9, 2026. By this date, an average season has delivered only 82 % of its fires.
At the pace of past seasons, the year would end at around 11,828 hotspots.
This is not a forecast. Neither the coming weeks' weather nor the state of the drought enters this calculation: it is a rule of three on the shape of past seasons, and the range (11,180 to 12,237) comes from how much they differ.
25 km cells, then 5 km from zoom 8.
Each frame shows the hotspots of a single year, on the same colour scale: the years can therefore be compared directly.
What that means Β· 2026
A burned hectare does not stop at the edge of the forest.
as much as 6,105 cars for a year
600 M in insured damage, 44 M in aerial firefighting
The hectares are a measurement: EFFIS maps the actual perimeters of fires above 30 hectares. The COβ and the particles come from the Copernicus model. The euros are a rule of three on 2022, the only year with figures: they count insured damage and the extra cost of aerial firefighting, not ground operations nor uninsured forest, which is most of it. The detail behind each figure
One question remains that satellites cannot handle: who starts them?
9 % of fires are natural in origin.
All the rest starts with a human act, and 30 % are lit deliberately.
What these shares do not say. A cause is recorded for only 49 % of declared fires. They therefore cover the fires whose cause is known, not every fire in France. An investigation succeeds more often when a fire is large or suspicious: arson is probably over-represented here. The method
Is it getting worse?
That is the question that matters, and it deserves a careful answer. Here are the burned areas year after year, measured.
Measured by EFFIS. 2026 is still running: its bar is not comparable to the others.
| Year | Hectares |
|---|---|
| 2006 | 1,751 |
| 2007 | 2,631 |
| 2008 | 1,694 |
| 2009 | 7,974 |
| 2010 | 4,653 |
| 2011 | 2,205 |
| 2012 | 3,298 |
| 2013 | 891 |
| 2014 | 4,667 |
| 2015 | 2,046 |
| 2016 | 10,767 |
| 2017 | 20,626 |
| 2018 | 2,581 |
| 2019 | 43,602 |
| 2020 | 14,547 |
| 2021 | 30,652 |
| 2022 | 66,392 |
| 2023 | 22,350 |
| 2024 | 12,268 |
| 2025 | 36,951 |
| 2026 (en cours) | 96,926 |
One line per year, real data day by day. VIIRS Suomi-NPP only, so that the years stay comparable.
| Year | Hotspots on September 9 |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 3,991 |
| 2013 | 2,275 |
| 2014 | 3,064 |
| 2015 | 3,205 |
| 2016 | 2,710 |
| 2017 | 4,810 |
| 2018 | 1,946 |
| 2019 | 5,857 |
| 2020 | 2,769 |
| 2021 | 3,151 |
| 2022 | 6,785 |
| 2023 | 2,782 |
| 2024 | 1,804 |
| 2025 | 2,312 |
| 2026 | 9,686 |
And where you live?
Every municipality has its own page, with its history since 2012 and the number of years it has burned.