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Broome fire, 26 June 2018 Broome

Out · last detection 8 Jul 2018, 17:16 UTC

The fire started on 26 June 2018 in Broome, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,151 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2072th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2718 with a page). Number 722 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
6,151ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
26 Jun 2018 – 7 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
26 Jun
2018
Heat detections
266
in a single hotspot: 360 MW
Danger at start
68
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jun7 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930123478

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
61km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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
    6,212 ha reached on 26 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
26 Jun 28.0 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
27 Jun 29.7 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
28 Jun 28.9 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Jun 28.1 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Jun 29.0 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
1 Jul 32.0 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
2 Jul 31.9 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Jul 31.8 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Jul 31.3 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Jul 30.6 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Jul 26.8 °C 23 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
7 Jul 28.8 °C 20 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
8 Jul after 31.4 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Jul after 28.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jul after 29.5 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jul after 29.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jul after 29.1 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Jul after 28.0 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 Jul after 28.3 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jul after 28.4 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Jul after 29.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Jul after 30.0 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Jul after 30.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jul after 32.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jul after 33.4 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Jul after 31.8 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jun 2018
After · 14 Jul 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 · 266Every 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 26 June 2018 and 7 July 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 6,151 hectares (61.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Broome (6,212 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.