How long did the Beverley fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 April 2018 and 6 May 2018: 12 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 27,499 hectares (275.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wandering (21,229 ha, 11 %); Brookton (4,362 ha, 2.7 %); Beverley (1,973 ha, 0.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 78 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.

AU · Australia · 2018-04-25 → 2018-05-06

Beverley fire, April 2018 Wandering, Brookton, Beverley

Out · last detection 6 May 2018, 17:02 UTC

The fire started on 25 April 2018 in Beverley, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,499 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 203th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2710 with a page). Number 78 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area: 27,499ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 12days; 25 Apr 2018 – 6 May 2018
Municipalities hit: 3; local government areas
Started on: 25 Apr; 2018
Heat detections: 1,985; in a single hotspot: 184 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 18.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 6 May 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Apr6 May

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293012456

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

The weather it burned in

28°high

78km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 106 ha in 2016, 1,673 ha in 2017.

61 ha Wandering fire, September 2017 5,317 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Wandering

21,229 ha reached on 25 Apr

11 %
Brookton

4,362 ha reached on 26 Apr

2.7 %
Beverley where it started

1,973 ha reached on 25 Apr

0.8 %

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)
18 Apr	20.2 °C	47 %	37 km/h	0.3 mm	High 23
19 Apr	17.9 °C	47 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
20 Apr	20.8 °C	45 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	High 23
21 Apr	24.9 °C	38 %	45 km/h	2.0 mm	Moderate 11
22 Apr	18.8 °C	82 %	66 km/h	18.0 mm	Very low 0
23 Apr	20.1 °C	51 %	42 km/h	0.3 mm	Very low 4
24 Apr	19.5 °C	49 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 5
25 Apr	20.8 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
26 Apr	23.8 °C	45 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
27 Apr	23.1 °C	45 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
28 Apr	23.8 °C	51 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
29 Apr	27.1 °C	24 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
30 Apr	25.7 °C	35 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
1 May	17.6 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
2 May	15.9 °C	46 %	56 km/h	0.3 mm	High 25
3 May	17.7 °C	39 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
4 May	18.5 °C	36 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
5 May	24.3 °C	15 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
6 May	17.9 °C	25 %	78 km/h	2.1 mm	Moderate 20
7 May after	18.6 °C	45 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
8 May after	19.0 °C	46 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
9 May after	20.3 °C	42 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
10 May after	20.3 °C	47 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
11 May after	24.4 °C	38 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
12 May after	28.3 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 May after	23.5 °C	50 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
14 May after	21.5 °C	53 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
15 May after	22.7 °C	41 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
16 May after	21.8 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
17 May after	21.3 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
18 May after	20.6 °C	36 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
19 May after	20.2 °C	34 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
20 May after	20.9 °C	33 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
21 May after	21.2 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
22 May after	23.1 °C	28 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
23 May after	23.4 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Apr 2018

After · 13 May 2018

Before After

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 · 1,985Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Beverley fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 April 2018 and 6 May 2018: 12 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 27,499 hectares (275.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wandering (21,229 ha, 11 %); Brookton (4,362 ha, 2.7 %); Beverley (1,973 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 78 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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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.

Where it burned