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Barkly fire, 7 October 2023 Roper Gulf, Barkly

Out · last detection 9 Nov 2023, 05:04 UTC

The fire started on 7 October 2023 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 64,541 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 124th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3511 with a page). Number 66 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Roper Gulf · 2021Roper Gulf · 2021Barkly · 2025Roper Gulf · 2022

Burnt area
64,541ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
7 Oct 2023 – 9 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
7 Oct
2023
Heat detections
2,560
in a single hotspot: 324 MW
Danger at start
70
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
986MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Oct9 Nov
9 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

7 Oct 2023 · 2,056 MW · 131 8 Oct 2023 · 363 MW · 88 9 Oct 2023 · 69 MW · 12 12 Oct 2023 · 5 MW · 1 13 Oct 2023 · 96 MW · 13 14 Oct 2023 · 145 MW · 44 15 Oct 2023 · 93 MW · 21 16 Oct 2023 · 2,799 MW · 106 17 Oct 2023 · 968 MW · 181 18 Oct 2023 · 1,767 MW · 240 19 Oct 2023 · 791 MW · 124 20 Oct 2023 · 1,424 MW · 89 21 Oct 2023 · 4,655 MW · 117 22 Oct 2023 · 1,702 MW · 81 23 Oct 2023 · 505 MW · 60 24 Oct 2023 · 1,415 MW · 149 25 Oct 2023 · 4,107 MW · 275 26 Oct 2023 · 1,387 MW · 259 27 Oct 2023 · 1,792 MW · 247 28 Oct 2023 · 1,084 MW · 141 29 Oct 2023 · 275 MW · 50 30 Oct 2023 · 43 MW · 7 31 Oct 2023 · 23 MW · 8 2 Nov 2023 · 55 MW · 17 3 Nov 2023 · 111 MW · 18 4 Nov 2023 · 20 MW · 3 6 Nov 2023 · 487 MW · 26 7 Nov 2023 · 1,313 MW · 47 8 Nov 2023 · 6 MW · 1 9 Nov 2023 · 29 MW · 4
7 Oct 14 Oct 19 Oct 21 Oct 24 Oct 29 Oct 4 Nov

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
56km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.8 mm on 10 Nov.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,037 ha in 2017, 916 ha in 2018, 1,852 ha in 2019, 6,970 ha in 2021, 107 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 41% of the area of London (645 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. Roper Gulf
    40,247 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.2 %
  2. Barkly where it started
    24,786 ha reached on 7 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
7 Oct 34.7 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
8 Oct 36.2 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
9 Oct 34.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 47
10 Oct 32.6 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct 36.4 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Oct 37.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Oct 37.0 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
14 Oct 35.6 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
15 Oct 36.2 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
16 Oct 37.1 °C 7 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
17 Oct 36.3 °C 9 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
18 Oct 36.7 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
19 Oct 37.9 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Oct 38.8 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
21 Oct 39.1 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
22 Oct 39.3 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Oct 39.0 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
24 Oct 40.9 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
25 Oct 40.5 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Oct 35.9 °C 9 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
27 Oct 35.5 °C 6 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
28 Oct 37.6 °C 5 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
29 Oct 38.9 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
30 Oct 38.1 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
31 Oct 37.4 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Nov 40.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Nov 40.1 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Nov 40.7 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Nov 39.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Nov 40.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Nov 39.5 °C 6 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
7 Nov 39.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
8 Nov 37.7 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Nov 36.4 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 52
10 Nov after 31.9 °C 43 % 41 km/h 7.8 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Sept 2023
After · 16 Nov 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 28 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 92 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak92 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10134 µg/m³
Optical depth1.45
1011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345
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 · 2,560Every 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 7 October 2023 to 9 November 2023 (34 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 October 2023 to 2 November 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 64,541 hectares (645.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Roper Gulf (40,247 ha, 0.2 %); Barkly (24,786 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 82, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 2 November 2023 → 9 November 2023.
  2. Start date: 12 October 2023 → 7 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 12 October 2023 to 2 November 2023. 2,560 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.