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Barkly fire, 9 October 2023 Barkly

Out · last detection 2 Nov 2023, 16:45 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2023 in Barkly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 125,676 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 36th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3503 with a page). Number 19 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Barkly · 2025Barkly · 2023Barkly · 2025Barkly · 2023

Burnt area
125,676ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
9 Oct 2023 – 1 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
9 Oct
2023
Heat detections
5,598
in a single hotspot: 420 MW
Danger at start
74
Very extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
3.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct1 Nov
2 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

9 Oct 2023 · 12,352 MW · 372 10 Oct 2023 · 1,353 MW · 212 11 Oct 2023 · 1,418 MW · 93 12 Oct 2023 · 1,394 MW · 152 13 Oct 2023 · 983 MW · 122 14 Oct 2023 · 1,125 MW · 150 15 Oct 2023 · 6,092 MW · 278 16 Oct 2023 · 2,422 MW · 231 17 Oct 2023 · 3,918 MW · 264 18 Oct 2023 · 3,046 MW · 219 19 Oct 2023 · 1,995 MW · 202 20 Oct 2023 · 2,235 MW · 153 21 Oct 2023 · 3,978 MW · 252 22 Oct 2023 · 3,033 MW · 261 23 Oct 2023 · 3,487 MW · 231 24 Oct 2023 · 8,585 MW · 387 25 Oct 2023 · 1,162 MW · 213 26 Oct 2023 · 1,096 MW · 279 27 Oct 2023 · 1,408 MW · 295 28 Oct 2023 · 4,540 MW · 384 29 Oct 2023 · 1,504 MW · 250 30 Oct 2023 · 1,276 MW · 141 31 Oct 2023 · 4,244 MW · 270 1 Nov 2023 · 1,195 MW · 51 2 Nov 2023 · 7 MW · 13
9 Oct 13 Oct 17 Oct 21 Oct 25 Oct 29 Oct 2 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

40°high
57km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,426 ha in 2017, 1,103 ha in 2019, 179 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 79% of the area of London (1,257 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. Barkly where it started
    126,171 ha reached on 8 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
9 Oct 35.2 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
10 Oct 34.7 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
11 Oct 35.9 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
12 Oct 37.8 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
13 Oct 37.0 °C 10 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
14 Oct 34.6 °C 9 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
15 Oct 34.4 °C 5 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
16 Oct 35.2 °C 8 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
17 Oct 34.9 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
18 Oct 35.5 °C 7 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
19 Oct 36.8 °C 5 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Oct 38.5 °C 5 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
21 Oct 38.9 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Oct 38.9 °C 7 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
23 Oct 39.9 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
24 Oct 40.4 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
25 Oct 39.9 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 94
26 Oct 35.2 °C 9 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 93
27 Oct 34.2 °C 6 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 88
28 Oct 35.8 °C 4 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
29 Oct 37.6 °C 5 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
30 Oct 39.3 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
31 Oct 40.2 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
1 Nov 39.6 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Nov after 39.7 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
3 Nov after 40.6 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Nov after 40.9 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
5 Nov after 39.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
6 Nov after 39.7 °C 7 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
7 Nov after 41.4 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
8 Nov after 40.7 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
9 Nov after 39.8 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 62
10 Nov after 36.7 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Nov after 34.0 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2023
After · 8 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 20 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 86 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak86 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM10123 µg/m³
Optical depth1.49
789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234
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 · 5,598Every 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 9 October 2023 and 1 November 2023: 24 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 125,676 hectares (1,256.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Barkly (126,171 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.4 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 94, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 5,598 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.