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Broome fire, 10 November 2017 Broome, Derby-West Kimberley

Out · last detection 17 Nov 2017, 16:46 UTC

The fire started on 10 November 2017 in Broome, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,523 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 490th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2718 with a page). Number 159 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area
16,523ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
10 Nov 2017 – 17 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
10 Nov
2017
Heat detections
547
in a single hotspot: 228 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Nov17 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314151617

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
47km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Broome where it started
    12,254 ha reached on 10 Nov
    0.2 %
  2. Derby-West Kimberley
    4,424 ha reached on 12 Nov
    0.0 %

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)
10 Nov 35.3 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Nov 37.2 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Nov 39.7 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
13 Nov 38.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 Nov 36.4 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Nov 38.0 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Nov 40.1 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Nov 37.6 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Nov after 38.7 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
19 Nov after 38.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Nov after 38.6 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Nov after 39.1 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Nov after 39.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Nov after 39.9 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Nov after 41.8 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
25 Nov after 40.9 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
26 Nov after 40.9 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
27 Nov after 39.3 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Nov 2017
After · 24 Nov 2017

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 · 547Every 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 Broome fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 November 2017 and 17 November 2017: 8 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 16,523 hectares (165.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Broome (12,254 ha, 0.2 %); Derby-West Kimberley (4,424 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, class 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

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
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.

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.