The Amazon rainforest is facing a severe fire season in 2026, exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon. Starting in September, satellites detected a sharp increase in fire activity and smoke emissions in the central and eastern Amazon. The affected region stretches from forests near Manaus and Santarém to the mouth of the Amazon River. Scientists, including Douglas Morton from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, warn that this is the beginning of a long and intense fire season.
On October 12, 2026, the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured images of smoke streaming from fires on both sides of the Amazon River. Heavy smoke engulfed Manaus, leading to extremely poor air quality with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) values exceeding 135 micrograms per cubic meter. The hazardous conditions disrupted daily life, forcing schools to close and canceling citywide events.
The current fires are part of a broader pattern of tropical fires linked to El Niño, which typically begins in Indonesia and moves to the Amazon. Morton and his colleagues have observed this pattern in previous El Niño events, such as those in 2015-2016 and 2023. The fires in the Amazon are expected to continue until the rainy season arrives in December 2026 or January 2027. Morton emphasized the importance of avoiding burning to prevent further ecological damage, as many of the affected forests were already degraded by previous fires.
Most of the fires in the Amazon are human-induced, often starting as management fires that escape control and spread through the parched understory of the rainforest. Shane Coffield, an assistant research scientist at NASA Goddard, identified about 40 percent more fires in the Santarém region than officially reported. The intense drought, worsened by El Niño, has significantly reduced rainfall in the region, creating ideal conditions for fires to spread.