Aurukun fire, 13 July 2026 Aurukun
The fire started on 13 July 2026 in Aurukun, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,050 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 1717th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 832 in Australia in 2026, of 848.
We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks them up automatically when they are available.
- Burnt area
- 5,050ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 13 Jul 2026 – 14 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2026
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,814 ha in 2016, 2,145 ha in 2017, 1,314 ha in 2018, 984 ha in 2019, 1,263 ha in 2020, 2,230 ha in 2021, 928 ha in 2022, 2,283 ha in 2023, 1,735 ha in 2024, 2,646 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,946 ha that had burned before.
- 1,546 ha Aurukun fire, September 2021 18,717 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,285 ha Aurukun fire, September 2025 5,827 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,078 ha Aurukun fire, October 2016 6,992 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10 ha Cook fire, July 2024 5,655 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Aurukun where it started5,070 ha0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 31.5 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 14 Jul | 30.9 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 15 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Jul after | 31.2 °C | 30 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Jul after | 30.6 °C | 25 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 18 Jul after | 31.2 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Jul after | 30.5 °C | 24 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Jul after | 31.8 °C | 28 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Jul after | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Jul after | 31.8 °C | 33 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aurukun fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 July 2026 and 14 July 2026: 2 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 5,050 hectares (50.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Aurukun (5,070 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 20 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- 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.