Beverley fire, May 2020 York, Beverley
The fire started on 11 May 2020 in Beverley, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,320 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 1143th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2718 with a page). Number 119 in Australia in 2020, of 320.
- Burnt area
- 9,320ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 11 May 2020 – 15 May 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 11 May
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 640
- in a single hotspot: 100 MW
- Danger at start
- 13
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 18.1 mm on 24 May.
This area had burned before
26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 700 ha in 2016, 573 ha in 2017, 1,459 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,426 ha that had burned before.
- 898 ha York fire, April 2018 9,806 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 573 ha Beverley fire, April 2017 15,741 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 427 ha Beverley fire, October 2016 11,595 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
7,736 ha reached on 11 May3.6 %
-
Beverley where it started1,624 ha reached on 11 May0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 May | 21.4 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 12 May | 20.4 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 13 May | 25.5 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 May | 27.6 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 May | 24.5 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 16 May after | 19.6 °C | 54 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 17 May after | 21.8 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 May after | 17.3 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 May after | 16.6 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 20 May after | 18.2 °C | 48 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 21 May after | 18.9 °C | 43 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 22 May after | 21.4 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 May after | 23.8 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 24 May after | 19.4 °C | 25 % | 100 km/h | 18.1 mm | Low 7 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 640Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Beverley fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 May 2020 and 15 May 2020: 5 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 9,320 hectares (93.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: York (7,736 ha, 3.6 %); Beverley (1,624 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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
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
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.