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Barkly fire, 15 July 2018 Barkly, Central Desert

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2018, 05:27 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2018 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,972 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1928th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 513 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
7,972ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
15 Jul 2018 – 25 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
15 Jul
2018
Heat detections
315
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
46km/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

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Barkly where it started
    7,616 ha reached on 15 Jul
    0.0 %
  2. Central Desert
    394 ha reached on 16 Jul
    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)
15 Jul 26.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jul 26.3 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Jul 26.8 °C 7 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jul 27.3 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Jul 29.1 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Jul 28.8 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
21 Jul 27.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Jul 26.7 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Jul 29.2 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Jul 30.2 °C 10 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jul 31.4 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Jul after 32.1 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
27 Jul after 29.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Jul after 29.0 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Jul after 27.6 °C 19 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
30 Jul after 27.9 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Jul after 29.3 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Aug after 29.9 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Aug after 31.5 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
3 Aug after 23.9 °C 18 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
4 Aug after 28.0 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Aug after 29.9 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Aug after 24.0 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2018
After · 1 Aug 2018

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 · 315Every 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 15 July 2018 and 25 July 2018: 11 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 7,972 hectares (79.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Barkly (7,616 ha, 0.0 %); Central Desert (394 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.