These images by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, captured on 26 July, show the area to the west of Bordeaux, in south-western France, where wildfires continue to burn countryside, fanned by wind and heatwave conditions.

Over the weekend, almost 220 000 people are reported to have been evacuated from the Gironde region, which is famous for its vineyards, pine forests and marshland.

An area at least four times the size of Paris is thought to have been left charred by the wildfires. The darkened area is visible on the true-colour image (on the left) to the north of the Arcachon inland bay. On this image, infrared data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 have been added to show the active fires, particularly in the centre and at the top of the image.

The second image (on the right) is a false-colour Sentinel-2 image, which highlights vegetation in red and clearly shows the burned landscape in dark brown – which should not be confused with Arcachon Bay and two lakes at the top of the image, which also appear as dark areas.

Read here for more Earth observation images showing the effects of extreme heat in 2026: Wildfires, drought and extreme heat, 2026