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Barkly fire, 28 September 2023 Burke, Barkly, Mount Isa

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2023, 05:03 UTC

The fire started on 28 September 2023 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 43,494 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 214th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3514 with a page). Number 115 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Barkly · 2018Burke · 2017Burke · 2026Barkly · 2026

Burnt area
43,494ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
28 Sept 2023 – 24 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
3
local government areas
Started on
28 Sept
2023
Heat detections
1,573
in a single hotspot: 261 MW
Danger at start
70
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
625MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Sept24 Oct
24 Oct 2023

How it evolved, day by day

28 Sept 2023 · 2,294 MW · 88 29 Sept 2023 · 1,424 MW · 99 30 Sept 2023 · 874 MW · 82 1 Oct 2023 · 1,143 MW · 91 2 Oct 2023 · 1,348 MW · 101 3 Oct 2023 · 349 MW · 63 4 Oct 2023 · 537 MW · 70 5 Oct 2023 · 886 MW · 127 6 Oct 2023 · 830 MW · 162 7 Oct 2023 · 627 MW · 67 8 Oct 2023 · 231 MW · 26 9 Oct 2023 · 23 MW · 6 10 Oct 2023 · 97 MW · 14 11 Oct 2023 · 109 MW · 15 12 Oct 2023 · 8 MW · 4 13 Oct 2023 · 299 MW · 42 14 Oct 2023 · 82 MW · 24 15 Oct 2023 · 664 MW · 45 16 Oct 2023 · 2,257 MW · 165 17 Oct 2023 · 867 MW · 148 18 Oct 2023 · 758 MW · 80 19 Oct 2023 · 163 MW · 34 20 Oct 2023 · 67 MW · 2 21 Oct 2023 · 251 MW · 11 22 Oct 2023 · 47 MW · 6 24 Oct 2023 · 6 MW · 1
28 Sept 2 Oct 6 Oct 10 Oct 14 Oct 18 Oct 22 Oct

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
54km/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

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,070 ha in 2016, 8,248 ha in 2017, 6,897 ha in 2018, 198 ha in 2020, 255 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 27% of the area of London (435 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. Burke
    30,443 ha reached on 28 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Barkly where it started
    12,667 ha reached on 28 Sept
    0.0 %
  3. Mount Isa
    504 ha reached on 3 Oct
    0.0 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
28 Sept 35.1 °C 12 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
29 Sept 35.2 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
30 Sept 35.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Oct 37.2 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
2 Oct 37.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Oct 36.6 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
4 Oct 34.3 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Oct 33.0 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
6 Oct 34.1 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
7 Oct 35.3 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
8 Oct 33.2 °C 19 % 48 km/h 1.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Oct 33.8 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 45
10 Oct 34.5 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
11 Oct 36.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Oct 37.0 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Oct 37.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
14 Oct 35.8 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
15 Oct 36.2 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
16 Oct 37.1 °C 7 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
17 Oct 37.0 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
18 Oct 37.2 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
19 Oct 37.9 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
20 Oct 39.5 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
21 Oct 39.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
22 Oct 38.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Oct 39.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
24 Oct 41.2 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
25 Oct after 41.2 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
26 Oct after 36.3 °C 8 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 87
27 Oct after 35.7 °C 7 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 87
28 Oct after 37.5 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
29 Oct after 38.9 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
30 Oct after 38.1 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
31 Oct after 36.7 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Nov after 39.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Nov after 40.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
3 Nov after 40.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Sept 2023
After · 31 Oct 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 7 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak37 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1060 µg/m³
Optical depth1.02
262728293012345678910111213141516171819202122232425
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 · 1,573Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 September 2023 to 24 October 2023 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 September 2023 to 22 October 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 43,494 hectares (434.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Burke (30,443 ha, 0.8 %); Barkly (12,667 ha, 0.0 %); Mount Isa (504 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 54 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 22 October 2023 → 24 October 2023.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 September 2023 to 22 October 2023. 1,573 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 2025, 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.