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Bega Valley fire, August 2018 Bega Valley

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2018, 03:55 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2018 in Bega Valley, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,293 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 39th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 141 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bega Valley · 2020Snowy Monaro · 2020Snowy Monaro · 2019

Burnt area
20,293ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
15 Aug 2018 – 22 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
15 Aug
2018
Heat detections
2,451
in a single hotspot: 273 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
475MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug22 Sept
22 Sept 2018

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 2018 · 5,012 MW · 413 16 Aug 2018 · 1,520 MW · 239 17 Aug 2018 · 365 MW · 104 18 Aug 2018 · 338 MW · 90 19 Aug 2018 · 349 MW · 36 20 Aug 2018 · 19 MW · 5 21 Aug 2018 · 847 MW · 174 22 Aug 2018 · 1,215 MW · 231 23 Aug 2018 · 94 MW · 15 24 Aug 2018 · 131 MW · 52 25 Aug 2018 · 247 MW · 84 26 Aug 2018 · 188 MW · 64 27 Aug 2018 · 342 MW · 113 28 Aug 2018 · 95 MW · 41 29 Aug 2018 · 152 MW · 48 31 Aug 2018 · 100 MW · 31 1 Sept 2018 · 335 MW · 59 2 Sept 2018 · 67 MW · 12 3 Sept 2018 · 420 MW · 23 4 Sept 2018 · 45 MW · 29 5 Sept 2018 · 107 MW · 41 7 Sept 2018 · 6 MW · 1 8 Sept 2018 · 13 MW · 8 9 Sept 2018 · 199 MW · 64 10 Sept 2018 · 71 MW · 15 11 Sept 2018 · 153 MW · 34 12 Sept 2018 · 169 MW · 51 13 Sept 2018 · 288 MW · 62 14 Sept 2018 · 184 MW · 45 15 Sept 2018 · 4,078 MW · 192 16 Sept 2018 · 28 MW · 11 17 Sept 2018 · 37 MW · 7 18 Sept 2018 · 142 MW · 11 19 Sept 2018 · 31 MW · 10 20 Sept 2018 · 143 MW · 23 21 Sept 2018 · 29 MW · 12 22 Sept 2018 · 4 MW · 1
15 Aug 21 Aug 27 Aug 3 Sept 10 Sept 16 Sept 22 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
92km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 23 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (203 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. Bega Valley where it started
    20,265 ha reached on 15 Aug
    3.2 %

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 2020
Built-up area1.4 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.4 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.

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 Aug 15.0 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
10 Aug 18.7 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
11 Aug 19.2 °C 24 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Aug 13.3 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Aug 17.0 °C 31 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Aug 19.7 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Aug 19.9 °C 24 % 85 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 16.7 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Aug 13.0 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
18 Aug 14.6 °C 42 % 46 km/h 2.3 mm Low 7
19 Aug 10.1 °C 39 % 92 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
20 Aug 12.2 °C 34 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Aug 14.7 °C 33 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Aug 14.1 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
23 Aug 12.8 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
24 Aug 12.8 °C 63 % 28 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 4
25 Aug 14.0 °C 71 % 39 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 0
26 Aug 14.6 °C 64 % 26 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 0
27 Aug 11.5 °C 37 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
28 Aug 10.1 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
29 Aug 12.6 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
30 Aug 14.2 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
31 Aug 11.6 °C 54 % 50 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 4
1 Sept 17.9 °C 34 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm Low 8
2 Sept 12.7 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
3 Sept 12.2 °C 49 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Low 10
4 Sept 12.9 °C 57 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
5 Sept 16.1 °C 47 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Sept 15.9 °C 59 % 51 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 4
7 Sept 14.8 °C 62 % 34 km/h 8.9 mm Very low 0
8 Sept 14.0 °C 55 % 29 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 1
9 Sept 18.6 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
10 Sept 18.6 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
11 Sept 21.6 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
12 Sept 21.8 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
13 Sept 18.3 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
14 Sept 21.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
15 Sept 24.8 °C 20 % 78 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept 12.6 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Sept 17.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Sept 22.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Sept 17.6 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
20 Sept 17.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Sept 18.1 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Sept 19.1 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
23 Sept after 15.4 °C 55 % 37 km/h 1.3 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2018
After · 29 Sept 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 · 2,451Every 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 Bega Valley fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2018 and 22 September 2018: 39 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 20,293 hectares (202.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bega Valley (20,265 ha, 3.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 92 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
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.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2,451 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 2020, 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.