Aurukun fire, August 2021 Aurukun, Cook
The fire started on 31 August 2021 in Aurukun, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,592 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 913th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 213 in Australia in 2021, of 460.
- Burnt area
- 8,592ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 31 Aug 2021 – 6 Sept 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 31 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 235
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 10 Sept.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,549 ha in 2016, 1,370 ha in 2017, 3,002 ha in 2018, 5,029 ha in 2019, 2,426 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,695 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Aurukun where it started7,604 ha reached on 31 Aug1.0 %
-
1,016 ha reached on 4 Sept0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 31.4 °C | 53 % | 40 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 30 Aug | 32.0 °C | 50 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Aug | 33.6 °C | 42 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Sept | 31.4 °C | 53 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Sept | 31.7 °C | 47 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 3 Sept | 32.5 °C | 38 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Sept | 32.9 °C | 38 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Sept | 33.5 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Sept | 32.9 °C | 35 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 44 % | 63 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Sept after | 29.5 °C | 45 % | 71 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 48 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 59 % | 55 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 235Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aurukun fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2021 and 6 September 2021: 7 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 8,592 hectares (85.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Aurukun (7,604 ha, 1.0 %); Cook (1,016 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- 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
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.
Report an error
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.