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Indonesian Wildfire Emissions Surge to World’s Highest, Data Shows

This aerial photo taken from a commercial aircraft shows haze from Indonesian forest fires blanketing a bridge in Kuching, the capital city of Malaysia's Sarawak state on the island of Borneo on September 5, 2026. (AFP)
This aerial photo taken from a commercial aircraft shows haze from Indonesian forest fires blanketing a bridge in Kuching, the capital city of Malaysia's Sarawak state on the island of Borneo on September 5, 2026. (AFP)
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Indonesian Wildfire Emissions Surge to World’s Highest, Data Shows

This aerial photo taken from a commercial aircraft shows haze from Indonesian forest fires blanketing a bridge in Kuching, the capital city of Malaysia's Sarawak state on the island of Borneo on September 5, 2026. (AFP)
This aerial photo taken from a commercial aircraft shows haze from Indonesian forest fires blanketing a bridge in Kuching, the capital city of Malaysia's Sarawak state on the island of Borneo on September 5, 2026. (AFP)

Indonesia is facing a surge in emissions from wildfires burning through parched stretches of forest and peatland on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, with carbon dioxide readings currently the highest in the world, data showed on Wednesday.

Fire emissions from Indonesia from September 1 to September 7 reached 19.7 million metric tons, overtaking Russia this week and making up more than a third of the global total, according to Fire Emissions Watch, a portal developed by the European Union's Copernicus climate monitoring service.

Indonesia is one of the world's most fire-prone countries, but as "super-El Nino" weather conditions drive up temperatures and cause punishing droughts, the country is battling what authorities say is its most intense wildfire season in 11 years.

"We do expect to see some fires across the region at this time of year, but with El Nino, it clearly ‌just gives a ‌big enhancement to them," said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service ‌in ⁠Bonn.

"It's much drier, ⁠it's hotter, and when there's ignition, these fires burn in a far more extreme way."

From September 1 to September 7, fire emission intensity exceeded 1,500 kg/sq km, more than 10 times the Russian level, with the highest concentrations in Kalimantan in Indonesia's part of Borneo and eastern parts of Sumatra, Copernicus data showed on Wednesday.

Emissions were 273% higher than the seasonal average, though still lower than the 21.7 million tons emitted in the same week of 2015, when Indonesia was battling similarly intense El Nino conditions.

Among the hardest hit areas has been the city of Pontianak in West Kalimantan, where the air quality index was ⁠394 on Wednesday, according to Swiss air quality monitoring firm IQAir. A reading of 300 ‌is considered hazardous.

Indonesia's environment ministry told Reuters in a statement that it ‌viewed the hazardous air quality readings in Kalimantan and elsewhere "with concern".

It said it was monitoring Copernicus's data, but added it "does not ‌directly reflect air quality conditions in a specific area", and other factors needed to be taken into account.

'BELOW THE ‌DETECTION LIMIT'

From January to July this year, fires burned around 202,000 hectares (780 square miles) of Indonesian land, about a third the amount over the same period in 2015, said Nisa Novita of the environmental group YKAN, which helps communities tackle fires.

"However, August data are estimated to show a significant increase of around 600,000 hectares, particularly in Kalimantan, Sumatra and South Papua," she said.

Indonesia lost a total ‌of 2.6 million hectares to fire in the whole of 2015, an area bigger than Wales.

The number of recorded hotspots from August 1 to September 8 reached ⁠13,443, compared to 9,454 over ⁠the same period of 2015, according to Indonesian forest ministry monitoring platform Sipongi, based on data from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.

A record monthly high for hotspots was recorded in October 2015, Sipongi data showed.

Fire Emissions Watch uses satellite observations to estimate concentrations of particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, greenhouse gases and other fire-fuelled pollutants, but Parrington said it could actually be underestimating the extent of the problem.

"One of the aspects with peat fires is if they're burning at low temperatures or underground, they'd be below the detection limit of the sensors, which means we're not actually seeing them," he said.

Studies have shown that fires in Indonesia in 2015 produced more emissions per day than the whole of the EU, and caused more than 100,000 excess deaths throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

"We have to remember that this is still the beginning of the season, and we expect the fires to continue and the emissions to keep increasing, potentially through to the end of October, which is what we saw in 2015," said Parrington.

"In two months we'll know how extreme this year has been, but the early indications are that it is at pace, if not slightly above those previous El Nino years."

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Varieties

Rare Family of Barn Owls Move into Manhattan's Upper West Side

An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
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Rare Family of Barn Owls Move into Manhattan's Upper West Side

An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Manhattan's Upper West Side has been reveling in the company of its latest celebrities: A family of barn owls nested in a water tower atop a building near Central Park.

This is the first documented instance of barn owls nesting in Manhattan in modern history, according to one expert, and the owls have attracted nightly crowds of people in the street eager to get a glimpse of the elusive birds.

“It was, like, totally shocking,” Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said of the barn owls. “To the best of our knowledge, like the collective birding knowledge, there hasn’t been a nest in, you know, in Manhattan, at least in recorded history.”

People look at American Barn Owls sit perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Word of the barn owl family didn't get around until last week, when Elisabeth Williams, an Upper West Side resident, notified a local news outlet on Oct. 6 that she and her husband saw multiple owls at the water tower atop a building on West 75th Street close to Central Park West.

The couple had previously seen a single owl on an apartment windowsill a few days earlier and were shocked even then, Williams recalled, according to The Associated Press.

“In a place like Manhattan, you normally really have to go out of your way to encounter nature,” she said. “And here it was, just sort of right outside our window.”

Barn owl sightings are rare in New York City It's not the first time that birds have captivated New Yorkers. Residents have fallen in love with American woodcocks, who are known to stop in Midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park every year as they migrate north in early spring.

After Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl died in 2024, dozens of mournful fans gathered to say goodbye to the beloved creature who flew around Manhattan and became a joy to many after someone let him out of his zoo enclosure the previous year. Then there was Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who nested above Fifth Avenue for three decades before dying in 2023.

But barn owl sightings in New York City parks are very rare, according to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. New York is at the northern fringe of the barn owl's range and the barn owl population has declined “at an alarming rate” over time, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“There’s lots of excitement among New Yorkers, both birders and non-birders alike, about these owls because owls really capture the attention,” said Jessica Wilson, executive director of NYC Bird Alliance. “They’re magical, they’re nocturnal, they are secretive, they’re not commonly seen, especially on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And to have this chance to see these birds is really thrilling.”

Photographers and casual onlookers have gathered on the street on a nightly basis to spot the owls.

“I’ve only seen one barn owl ever, and that was in California,” said Val Coleman, a retired New York City resident who was on the Upper West Side earlier this week trying to spot the owls.

“At dusk, we hope they will come out to hunt. We hope they don’t eat poisoned rats with rodenticide in ’em.”

David Barrett, a Manhattan-based birder who runs the popular social media account, Manhattan Bird Alert, said he’s observed at least one adult barn owl and five fledglings at the water tower. He’s also seen an adult owl carrying rodents back to the water tower. There are believed to be two adult owls, and some photographers have claimed to have seen six fledglings, Barrett added.

“Having one barn owl is a rarity, but it’s not national news. Having a family, for the first time ever, breeding in Manhattan in recorded history, that’s special news,” Barrett said.

Screeching was heard by residents Before the recent barn owl sightings, Williams and her husband heard periodic screeching noises outside going back to early September. They initially assumed it was a bird of some kind but were skeptical when a phone app indicated the noise was from a barn owl.

Thomas Obersteiner said that he first heard bizarre screeching and wailing noises from outside one evening in mid-September. It sounded like someone was “being murdered outside,” he said.

“That lasted for two or three weeks, every night, sometimes more, sometimes less, coming from different directions,” Obersteiner added. “But I had no idea what that was.”

An American Barn Owl sits perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

On multiple occasions, Obersteiner or his wife ran into their children's bedroom after mistaking the owls' screech for a child in pain, he said. It wasn't until he saw a news report that he realized that owls were making the sounds.

Farnsworth said the screech is typical of barn owls, who use it to communicate with one another. The screech is like a “horror movie kind of experience,” he said.

Obersteiner, who said his roof deck is “probably the best location in town right now” to watch the owls, has been letting nature photographers access that perch to observe the owls “almost every night” since news of the barn owls spread. On one night last week, 20 people had gathered.

“We can’t say no because it’s so much fun and these people are so serious,” Obersteiner added. “It's beautiful.”

Williams and her husband were not bird watchers before the barn owl family moved in to the water tower. But that may change soon after their “delightful” experience.

“I think we’re about to become birders,” Williams said.

Varieties

Spain Sizzles in Hottest September on Record

The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP
The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP
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Spain Sizzles in Hottest September on Record

The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP
The unprecedented heat in September came after Spain's hottest summer on record. Oscar DEL POZO / AFP

Mainland Spain sizzled in its warmest September since records began in 1961, with exceptional heat effectively making it another summer month, national weather agency AEMET said on Friday.

The announcement is the latest in a series of new temperature records this year across Europe, scorched by successive summer heatwaves that scientists say were turbo-charged by human-driven climate change.

The average temperature in September was 22.5C, 3.4C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period, said AEMET, with the unprecedented reading coming after Spain's hottest summer on record, said AFP.

It was the first time the figure for September exceeded the average summer temperature of 22.1C for the 1991-2020 period, AEMET added in a statement.

The country equaled its all-time heat record for the month when 45.7C was registered in the southwestern municipality of El Granado on September 3.

AEMET briefly issued the highest red alert for heat in small areas of the southern region of Andalusia in September, the first time such warnings had been sent in the month since they started in 2007.

Last month was also extremely dry, recording just 36 percent of the normal rainfall expected in September in mainland Spain based on the 1991-2020 reference period.

Extreme temperatures have been linked to tens of thousands of excess deaths across the continent, as well as disrupting daily life and the economy through drought and low river levels.

Varieties

Indonesian Rescue Center Takes in More Orangutans as Fires Rage

An 11-year-old male orangutan named Didik eats on a rehabilitation island at a rehabilitation facility run by wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia in Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, August 31, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
An 11-year-old male orangutan named Didik eats on a rehabilitation island at a rehabilitation facility run by wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia in Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, August 31, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
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Indonesian Rescue Center Takes in More Orangutans as Fires Rage

An 11-year-old male orangutan named Didik eats on a rehabilitation island at a rehabilitation facility run by wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia in Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, August 31, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
An 11-year-old male orangutan named Didik eats on a rehabilitation island at a rehabilitation facility run by wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia in Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, August 31, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

In the jungles of Indonesian Borneo, a rehabilitation center is taking in more orangutans as the country's worst wildfires in a decade sweep through the forest home of the critically endangered animals.

The intense wildfires, burning mainly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, began in July and could continue until November, aggravated by a severe El Niño weather pattern, the government has warned.

"I think so far this looks quite similar to the 2015 fires," said Karmele Llano Sanchez, co-founder of Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI), who has worked in Indonesia for more than 20 years. "It's possible that in the months to come, they (the orangutans) will also be affected by not having enough to eat, not having enough room, enough habitat, and starvation."

A three-year-old baby orangutan named Xavier holds food inside a medical cage used for orangutans evacuated from a rehabilitation island due to nearby wildfires at a rehabilitation facility run by wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia in Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, August 31, 2026. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

The world's three species of orangutan are native only to Borneo and Sumatra.

YIARI, in the Ketapang region of Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, is now looking after 90 orangutans, after rescuing 49 since August, foundation spokesperson Heribertus Suciadi ⁠said.

Over the last ⁠three years, the center rescued three to five animals a year, he added.

The fires and haze have shrouded parts of Borneo, which also includes the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, in a hazardous smog that has also spread to Singapore and the Malaysian peninsula, forcing some schools to close and causing a spike in respiratory illnesses.

Sampurna, an orangutan that Reuters encountered in August, was found gasping for air and writhing on the ground in a palm oil plantation.

Sampurna died on August 30, the forestry ministry said last month. Sanchez, who performed ⁠the necropsy on the great ape, said Sampurna died less than 12 hours after being rescued and had very dark lungs owing to respiratory problems, likening them to those of a heavy smoker.

From January to July this year, fires burned around 202,000 hectares (500,000 acres) in Indonesia. No official data for subsequent months has been released, but non-governmental organizations estimate fires have burned at least 600,000 hectares more since.

FILE PHOTO: A rescuer and a veterinarian with wildlife foundation Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) carry an orangutan after rescuing it in a palm-oil plantation affected by wildfires in Laman Satong village, Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, September 30, 2026. REUTERS/Victor Fidelis Sentosa

In 2015, fires burned nearly 960,000 hectares, forestry ministry data showed.

"I think in general, what we see is that these orangutans that were surviving in these fragments of forest, and the forest fragments are becoming smaller and smaller and smaller," Reuters quoted Sanchez as saying.

Once YIARI volunteers receive reports of orangutan sightings, they use a drone to determine the areas ravaged by the fires and whether orangutans were living there, Heribertus said.

Equipped with tranquilizers, rescuers then drive for hours to ⁠the burned forest to ⁠find the orangutans, sometimes using a net to capture the apes before taking them to safety.

The foundation has more than 200 staff, including firefighters and veterinarians.
"Fires are occurring in many areas. As a result, the orangutans are being displaced into plantations," said Relly Susanto, a YIARI patroller.

On a recent August day at the YIARI center, orangutans swung through the trees and walked on vines, as youngsters ate fruit next to their mothers. While there is no escape from the smoke even at YIARI, the center is not currently at risk from the fires themselves and some of the rescued orangutans have been returned to the wild in safer locations.

At the moment, YIARI has enough capacity to take in the orangutans, Sanchez said. But with the fires showing little sign of abating, she is not sure how long that will last.

"It's difficult to quantify how many orangutans will need to be rescued," she said. "One of our concerns is whether we'll have enough capacity to really get all of these rescued orangutans into the facility."