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Barkly fire, 25 August 2017 Barkly, Roper Gulf, Burke

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2017, 16:38 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2017 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 213,151 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 10th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). The largest in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Barkly · 2025Barkly · 2022Barkly · 2025

Burnt area
213,151ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
25 Aug 2017 – 25 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
3
local government areas
Started on
25 Aug
2017
Heat detections
8,175
in a single hotspot: 250 MW
Danger at start
74
Very extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
2.3GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug25 Sept
25 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

25 Aug 2017 · 17 MW · 6 26 Aug 2017 · 157 MW · 49 27 Aug 2017 · 5,811 MW · 640 28 Aug 2017 · 5,425 MW · 780 29 Aug 2017 · 9,350 MW · 1105 30 Aug 2017 · 9,760 MW · 910 31 Aug 2017 · 3,785 MW · 518 1 Sept 2017 · 3,970 MW · 325 2 Sept 2017 · 2,128 MW · 157 3 Sept 2017 · 712 MW · 55 4 Sept 2017 · 424 MW · 87 5 Sept 2017 · 495 MW · 122 6 Sept 2017 · 2,662 MW · 268 7 Sept 2017 · 2,497 MW · 357 8 Sept 2017 · 1,458 MW · 143 9 Sept 2017 · 1,021 MW · 216 10 Sept 2017 · 1,266 MW · 180 11 Sept 2017 · 733 MW · 106 12 Sept 2017 · 903 MW · 129 13 Sept 2017 · 2,967 MW · 186 14 Sept 2017 · 2,579 MW · 339 15 Sept 2017 · 1,578 MW · 238 16 Sept 2017 · 1,561 MW · 175 17 Sept 2017 · 2,632 MW · 171 18 Sept 2017 · 1,153 MW · 112 19 Sept 2017 · 1,630 MW · 198 20 Sept 2017 · 2,728 MW · 192 21 Sept 2017 · 1,539 MW · 212 22 Sept 2017 · 986 MW · 108 23 Sept 2017 · 230 MW · 30 24 Sept 2017 · 337 MW · 41 25 Sept 2017 · 178 MW · 20
25 Aug 30 Aug 4 Sept 9 Sept 14 Sept 19 Sept 24 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
67km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,135 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.3 times the area of London (2,132 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Barkly where it started
    117,629 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Roper Gulf
    82,600 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.4 %
  3. Burke
    13,694 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.3 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area0.12 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.12 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
25 Aug 27.7 °C 9 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
26 Aug 28.6 °C 8 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 Aug 28.5 °C 8 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
28 Aug 28.0 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
29 Aug 28.5 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
30 Aug 28.4 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
31 Aug 30.6 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Sept 31.6 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Sept 31.8 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Sept 33.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Sept 32.8 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Sept 31.0 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
6 Sept 30.9 °C 11 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
7 Sept 29.6 °C 8 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
8 Sept 30.4 °C 8 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
9 Sept 31.1 °C 11 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
10 Sept 32.1 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Sept 33.4 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Sept 34.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Sept 36.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Sept 30.5 °C 9 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
15 Sept 31.4 °C 9 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
16 Sept 32.2 °C 8 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
17 Sept 32.7 °C 6 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Sept 33.7 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Sept 34.8 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
20 Sept 34.5 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
21 Sept 35.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Sept 35.7 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
23 Sept 35.9 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
24 Sept 35.9 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
25 Sept 34.7 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Sept after 37.5 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Sept after 37.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept after 37.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Sept after 36.6 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
30 Sept after 35.3 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Oct after 34.1 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
2 Oct after 33.6 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Oct after 35.5 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Oct after 37.2 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Oct after 34.4 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2017
After · 2 Oct 2017

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 · 8,175Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Barkly fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2017 and 25 September 2017: 32 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 213,151 hectares (2,131.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Barkly (117,629 ha, 0.4 %); Roper Gulf (82,600 ha, 0.4 %); Burke (13,694 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 81, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 000.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 8,175 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.