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Barkly fire, 23 August 2023 Barkly

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2023, 16:52 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2023 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 42,746 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 219th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 117 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Burnt area
42,746ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
23 Aug 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
23 Aug
2023
Heat detections
2,215
in a single hotspot: 821 MW
Danger at start
74
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
24.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
62km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15 ha in 2016, 13,984 ha in 2017, 476 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Barkly where it started
    42,791 ha reached on 23 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
23 Aug 29.5 °C 11 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
24 Aug 29.8 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
25 Aug 30.1 °C 14 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
26 Aug 29.7 °C 13 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
27 Aug 30.4 °C 12 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
28 Aug 30.2 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Aug 30.8 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
30 Aug 31.6 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Aug 30.4 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
1 Sept 29.0 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
2 Sept 28.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Sept 30.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept 33.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Sept 33.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Sept 33.1 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
7 Sept 34.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Sept 31.1 °C 15 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
9 Sept 31.7 °C 12 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
10 Sept 32.2 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
11 Sept 31.1 °C 10 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
12 Sept 30.5 °C 13 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
13 Sept 30.6 °C 11 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
14 Sept 30.6 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Sept 31.8 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
16 Sept 32.1 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
17 Sept 32.6 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept 32.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Sept 33.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Sept after 34.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Sept after 36.6 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Sept after 35.4 °C 10 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
23 Sept after 33.9 °C 7 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
24 Sept after 34.8 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
25 Sept after 34.9 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Sept after 34.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Sept after 35.0 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 Sept after 35.6 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
29 Sept after 35.9 °C 11 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 88
30 Sept after 36.6 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Oct after 37.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
2 Oct after 37.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Oct after 38.8 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
4 Oct after 34.2 °C 18 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 89
5 Oct after 31.7 °C 14 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
6 Oct after 32.3 °C 8 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2023
After · 26 Sept 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 11 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak49 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1070 µg/m³
Optical depth1.02
212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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)

Detections table · 2,215Every 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 23 August 2023 and 19 September 2023: 28 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 42,746 hectares (427.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Barkly (42,791 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 86, 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.