UK Wildfire Trends: 2025 Set a Record

A wide plume of smoke over moorland and forest seen from a drone
Smoke from the Dava Moor wildfire in Moray, Scotland, 30 June 2025. Photo: KUZUYRA778 2 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Record burned areaUpdated 4 October 2026

Trend summary

  • Wildfire used to sound like someone else’s problem. In 2025 it was a British one.
  • Satellite monitoring put the UK’s burned area at about 47,000 hectares in January to November 2025, the largest since records began in 2012.
  • In England, fire services attended 109,473 outdoor fires in the year to March 2026, up 31% on the year before. Larger outdoor fires rose 48%.
  • The Dava Moor fire in Moray burned roughly 10,000 hectares in about four days, and researchers have called it the UK’s first “megafire”.
~47,000 haUK area burned by wildfire, 2025 (record since 2012)
109,473outdoor fires in England, year to March 2026 (+31%)
996wildfires in England and Wales by 4 Sep 2025, beating the 2022 full-year record
6×how much more likely climate change made 2022’s fire weather

What the numbers show

There is no single official count of UK wildfires. Fire services count “outdoor fires”, which include grass and heath but also refuse and other small fires. MHCLG recorded 109,473 of them in England in the year to March 2026, up 31%, and linked the rise to a hot, dry spring and summer in 2025. The National Fire Chiefs Council counted 996 wildfires in England and Wales by 4 September 2025, already above the full-year record of 994 set in 2022.

Area burned comes from satellites. The Global Wildfire Information System measured about 47,000 hectares in January to November 2025, as reported by Euronews, and Carbon Brief found that by early August the total was already nearly four times the 2012-24 average for that point in the year.

What is driving it

Weather sets the stage and people light the match. A Met Office, UKCEH and University of Exeter study found that climate change made the UK’s 2022 fire weather at least six times more likely. Peer-reviewed projections (Perry et al., 2022) suggest summer days of very high fire danger could double at 2°C of global warming. Almost all UK wildfires are started by people, through cigarettes, campfires and barbecues, arson or controlled burns that escape (House of Lords Library).

Recent cases

  • July–August 2026, Dunwich Heath, Suffolk: a heathland fire is declared a major incident for about 12 days; crews from all 35 Suffolk fire stations attend (Suffolk County Council).
  • April 2026, Elan Valley, mid Wales: moorland fires burn for at least four days near Claerwen Dam (ITV News).
  • Summer 2025, Moray: the Dava Moor fire becomes the largest wildfire recorded in Scotland, followed by a major fire at Culbin Forest (Moray Council).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from UK government departments, regulators, accident investigators and national statistics; a few news reports are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

2026

2025

2024

2023

View 20 years of major UK wildfire press releases (2007–2026)66 more from 2007–2022, up to five a year, newest first

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

Some early years list fewer than five items. Many UK government releases from that period are no longer online at their original addresses, and we only list items we could open and check.

Photo list

Satellite image of a smoke plume drifting west from moorland near Manchester
Satellite image of smoke from the Saddleworth Moor fire, 27 June 2018. Photo: NASA via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Aerial view of burnt gardens and houses next to scorched grassland
Aerial view of the Wennington wildfire in east London, 19 July 2022. Photo: Harrison Healey via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Related on ROR Labs

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. UK statistics are often published separately for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so we say which area each figure covers. Photos are public-domain, Creative Commons or Open Government Licence images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.