Wildfire near Quimilí, Argentina (2026)

Wildfire near Quimilí — Sentinel-2 true color

Wildfire near Quimilí — Sentinel-2 SWIR (fuego)

True view Fire view

⟷

True view (left): as the eye sees it.
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.

🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now

Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.

Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus

The story so far

About 35 km north of Quimilí.

Burning across a span of seventy-nine days after igniting on August 6, 2026, a wildfire near Quimilí, Argentina, has now ended. Satellites tracked an intense heat signature throughout the duration of this blaze, which ultimately reached an estimated size of 300 hectares, or 741 acres, derived from hotspot counts.

This event unfolded well outside the region's typical fire season, which usually runs from December to March. The local activity contributes to a broader national total of 1,030,752 hectares burned so far in 2026, a figure that remains seventy-five percent below the country's two-decade average.

In context

This wildfire burned in Argentina for 2 days. In total it burned about 300 ha (741 acres) — around 3.0 km². That size is an estimate from satellite hotspots, not a measured area.

In the Southern Hemisphere the season runs the other way, peaking roughly from November through March.