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Barkly fire, 27 August 2017 Barkly

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2017, 04:26 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2017 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 111,996 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

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.

It is the 42th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 8 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area
111,996ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
27 Aug 2017 – 22 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
27 Aug
2017
Heat detections
4,378
in a single hotspot: 397 MW
Danger at start
73
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
41.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223

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
58km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,715 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Barkly where it started
    111,557 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
26 Aug 29.4 °C 6 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
27 Aug 28.6 °C 7 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
28 Aug 28.4 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
29 Aug 29.0 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
30 Aug 28.9 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
31 Aug 30.9 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
1 Sept 32.4 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Sept 33.6 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Sept 33.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 Sept 32.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Sept 31.8 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
6 Sept 31.5 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
7 Sept 30.3 °C 7 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
8 Sept 31.0 °C 7 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
9 Sept 31.7 °C 8 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
10 Sept 32.4 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
11 Sept 33.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
12 Sept 34.9 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Sept 35.9 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept 31.1 °C 7 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
15 Sept 32.0 °C 6 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
16 Sept 32.8 °C 6 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
17 Sept 33.3 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
18 Sept 33.9 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
19 Sept 35.9 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
20 Sept 35.2 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
21 Sept 35.9 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
22 Sept 36.8 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
23 Sept after 37.7 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
24 Sept after 37.8 °C 15 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 89
25 Sept after 36.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
26 Sept after 38.6 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
27 Sept after 38.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
28 Sept after 38.5 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
29 Sept after 38.3 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
30 Sept after 36.6 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
1 Oct after 33.4 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
2 Oct after 33.9 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Oct after 35.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Oct after 36.7 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
5 Oct after 35.3 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Oct after 36.3 °C 25 % 55 km/h 0.3 mm Very extreme 72
7 Oct after 37.7 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Oct after 36.1 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.6 mm Extreme 57
9 Oct after 36.3 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2017
After · 29 Sept 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 · 4,378Every 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 27 August 2017 and 22 September 2017: 27 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 111,996 hectares (1,120.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Barkly (111,557 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 89, 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

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
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.

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.