How long did the Aurukun fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 October 2018 and 24 October 2018: 23 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,898 hectares (259.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Aurukun (26,082 ha, 3.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Australia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

AU · Australia · 2018-10-02 → 2018-10-24

Aurukun fire, 2 October 2018 Aurukun

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2018, 04:01 UTC

The fire started on 2 October 2018 in Aurukun, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,898 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 222th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 91 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area: 25,898ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 23days; 2 Oct 2018 – 24 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; local government areas
Started on: 2 Oct; 2018
Heat detections: 758; in a single hotspot: 218 MW
Danger at start: 58; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 9.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Oct 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Oct24 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

23456789101112131415161718192021222324

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high

55km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 959 ha in 2016, 5,439 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Aurukun where it started

26,082 ha reached on 2 Oct

3.5 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
2 Oct	36.3 °C	19 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
3 Oct	36.0 °C	22 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
4 Oct	36.1 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
5 Oct	31.8 °C	42 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
6 Oct	35.3 °C	28 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
7 Oct	36.3 °C	23 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
8 Oct	36.3 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
9 Oct	37.3 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
10 Oct	38.6 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
11 Oct	35.9 °C	29 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
12 Oct	35.9 °C	31 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
13 Oct	36.5 °C	34 %	44 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 44
14 Oct	35.2 °C	40 %	32 km/h	0.5 mm	High 34
15 Oct	37.6 °C	28 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Oct	37.1 °C	30 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
17 Oct	37.4 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
18 Oct	35.9 °C	26 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
19 Oct	37.6 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Oct	37.6 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
21 Oct	36.8 °C	28 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
22 Oct	36.0 °C	38 %	30 km/h	0.5 mm	High 37
23 Oct	36.5 °C	28 %	43 km/h	2.9 mm	High 28
24 Oct	35.7 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
25 Oct after	36.3 °C	23 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Oct after	35.6 °C	20 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 Oct after	37.2 °C	25 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Oct after	35.1 °C	36 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
29 Oct after	39.0 °C	24 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Oct after	39.1 °C	26 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
31 Oct after	39.2 °C	22 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Nov after	38.5 °C	25 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
2 Nov after	38.5 °C	25 %	51 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 52
3 Nov after	38.9 °C	21 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
4 Nov after	39.4 °C	22 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
5 Nov after	38.8 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 44
6 Nov after	38.2 °C	22 %	39 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 48
7 Nov after	38.0 °C	25 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
8 Nov after	37.9 °C	27 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
9 Nov after	37.7 °C	29 %	25 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 43
10 Nov after	36.3 °C	35 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 25 Sept 2018

After · 31 Oct 2018

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 758Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Aurukun fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 October 2018 and 24 October 2018: 23 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,898 hectares (259.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Aurukun (26,082 ha, 3.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Australia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 000

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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What really happened?

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned