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Boddington fire, 11 October 2016 Boddington, Murray, Wandering

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2016, 16:50 UTC

The fire started on 11 October 2016 in Boddington, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,651 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 1278th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2718 with a page). Number 196 in Australia in 2016, of 427.

Burnt area
8,651ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
11 Oct 2016 – 13 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
3
local government areas
Started on
11 Oct
2016
Heat detections
638
in a single hotspot: 288 MW
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
13.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Oct13 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

111213

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
71km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 29 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Boddington where it started
    6,408 ha reached on 11 Oct
    3.4 %
  2. Murray
    1,301 ha reached on 13 Oct
    0.8 %
  3. Wandering
    949 ha reached on 11 Oct
    0.5 %

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 Oct 22.8 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
12 Oct 29.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
13 Oct 23.5 °C 47 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
14 Oct after 17.7 °C 54 % 57 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 1
15 Oct after 14.3 °C 55 % 71 km/h 1.4 mm Very low 1
16 Oct after 16.9 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
17 Oct after 17.5 °C 60 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
18 Oct after 19.0 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
19 Oct after 16.7 °C 54 % 44 km/h 0.5 mm Low 6
20 Oct after 15.2 °C 44 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
21 Oct after 18.9 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
22 Oct after 24.8 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Oct after 26.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Oct after 18.3 °C 59 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
25 Oct after 16.9 °C 62 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Low 7
26 Oct after 20.9 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
27 Oct after 21.1 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
28 Oct after 20.6 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
29 Oct after 17.4 °C 56 % 64 km/h 1.5 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Oct 2016
After · 20 Oct 2016

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 · 638Every 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 Boddington fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 October 2016 and 13 October 2016: 3 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 8,651 hectares (86.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Boddington (6,408 ha, 3.4 %); Murray (1,301 ha, 0.8 %); Wandering (949 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
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
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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.

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.