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Barkly fire, 1 December 2017 Barkly, Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 10 Dec 2017, 05:03 UTC

The fire started on 1 December 2017 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,899 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1685th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 396 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area
8,899ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
1 Dec 2017 – 10 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
1 Dec
2017
Heat detections
327
in a single hotspot: 201 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Dec10 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
52km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 139 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Barkly where it started
    4,507 ha reached on 1 Dec
    0.0 %
  2. Roper Gulf
    4,433 ha reached on 4 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
1 Dec 38.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm High 29
2 Dec 38.0 °C 31 % 43 km/h 3.5 mm High 22
3 Dec 37.0 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Dec 34.3 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Dec 34.1 °C 6 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Dec 36.9 °C 5 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Dec 38.9 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Dec 39.4 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Dec 39.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Dec 40.9 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Dec after 42.2 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Dec after 40.1 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Dec after 39.8 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 Dec after 38.9 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Dec after 38.4 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Dec after 39.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Dec after 39.6 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Dec after 39.9 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
19 Dec after 38.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Dec after 38.5 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.9 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Nov 2017
After · 17 Dec 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 · 327Every 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 1 December 2017 and 10 December 2017: 10 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 8,899 hectares (89.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Barkly (4,507 ha, 0.0 %); Roper Gulf (4,433 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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

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.