The fire that took Bordeaux’s breath Away
On July 22, a fire broke out in the pine forests of the Gironde, southwest of Bordeaux, and grew explosively overnight. Our tracking shows the affected area expanding from a single ignition point to nearly 700 square kilometers within four days.
A wide-view satellite camera caught the scale of it on July 23: a smoke plume so large that NASA named it their image of the week. On the ground, the picture was just as stark. More than 250,000 people across France and Spain were forced to leave their homes this month, many seeking shelter in Bordeaux itself.
No single satellite tells this story alone. One instrument gives us the day-by-day growth of the fire. A wider-view camera shows the smoke at a continental scale. A higher-resolution sensor maps the burned area in detail once the fire has passed. And a very sharp, close-up satellite image shows what the same forest looked like just four weeks earlier, before any of this began.
Iberian Drought and Madrid’s Explosive Fire
Before the fires came, the drought did. For months, a combined satellite index tracking rainfall, soil moisture, and plant health had shown southwestern Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Algeria under sustained alert, a pattern striking enough that Copernicus featured it as their satellite image of the day.
By June, the heatwave made things worse still, with satellite data showing an especially sharp rainfall shortfall and further drying soil across the Iberian Peninsula.
The consequence was visible from every satellite watching the region by the second half of July: six major wildfires across our Spain monitoring alone. The worst is pictured below, west of Madrid, grew into the region's most destructive fire on record after three separate blazes merged into one. Spain declared a national emergency. Roughly 45,000 hectares burned across Madrid and Ávila, and around 90,000 people were evacuated or moved to safety.
Eight other Fires to Watch in France and Spain
Summer 2026 is making European climate history. The Copernicus Climate ChangeService reports the hottest June ever recorded for Western Europe, and France has felt it too: below-average rainfall since April, followed by wildfires that have already burned 72,000 hectares. This is a by no means exhaustive list of fires in Spain and France that can be viewed form space.
Var, Provence. Five days of fire north of Toulon, tracked by satellite from July 21 to 25, burning around 62 square kilometers.
Corsica. A marathon fire in the island's interior, with nearly two weeks of active detection from July 14 to 25. Small in area (23 square kilometers) but persistent, with the satellite record showing daily flare-ups.
Fontainebleau. A forest fire at the gates of Paris, burning July 13 to 15 near Arbonne-la-Forêt and covering roughly 54 square kilometers. Satellite images from four different dates trace the fire's progress and the scar it left
Hautes-Alpes. A high-mountain fire near L'Argentière-la-Bessée, burning July 20 to 24 and covering 12.5 square kilometers. Satellite imagery makes the burn scar visible even in steep alpine terrain.
Guadalajara (La Mierla). Spain's worst fire of the year until it was overtaken by Madrid's: roughly 29,000 hectares by July 21. A week of satellite tracking, July 16 to 23, shows the fire's daily growth.
Orés, Zaragoza. Broke out on July 15 and grew to more than 200 square kilometers in just three days. Copernicus featured it as their satellite image of the day.
Asturias/León. The north burns too. In the Cantabrian Mountains, satellite data tracked growth from July 23 to 26, capturing the fire in action and then the fresh burn scar it left behind (roughly 43 square kilometers).
Huelva. Former mining land around Tharsis caught fire, with satellite imagery from July 19, 22, and 24 showing roughly 63 square kilometers burned in just two days.
Watching from space means catching that build-up early, tracking the shift from dry soil to active fire as it happens rather than after the fact. We are here to help.
