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Broome fire, 4 September 2021 Broome

Out · last detection 7 Oct 2021, 05:11 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2021 in Broome, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 94,758 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 24th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2728 with a page). Number 4 in Australia in 2021, of 460.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Broome · 2018Broome · 2018Broome · 2017Broome · 2020

Burnt area
94,758ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
4 Sept 2021 – 7 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
4 Sept
2021
Heat detections
3,567
in a single hotspot: 618 MW
Danger at start
63
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
2.3GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept7 Oct
7 Oct 2021

How it evolved, day by day

4 Sept 2021 · 1,440 MW · 81 5 Sept 2021 · 832 MW · 61 6 Sept 2021 · 157 MW · 64 7 Sept 2021 · 397 MW · 59 8 Sept 2021 · 638 MW · 74 9 Sept 2021 · 2,714 MW · 118 10 Sept 2021 · 1,990 MW · 94 11 Sept 2021 · 1,956 MW · 96 12 Sept 2021 · 2,333 MW · 168 13 Sept 2021 · 569 MW · 64 14 Sept 2021 · 3,230 MW · 113 15 Sept 2021 · 764 MW · 71 16 Sept 2021 · 717 MW · 62 17 Sept 2021 · 45 MW · 15 18 Sept 2021 · 530 MW · 96 19 Sept 2021 · 2,565 MW · 131 20 Sept 2021 · 1,642 MW · 103 21 Sept 2021 · 14,647 MW · 291 22 Sept 2021 · 10,684 MW · 472 23 Sept 2021 · 10,756 MW · 499 24 Sept 2021 · 1,397 MW · 119 25 Sept 2021 · 2,317 MW · 110 26 Sept 2021 · 1,106 MW · 82 27 Sept 2021 · 738 MW · 86 28 Sept 2021 · 3,382 MW · 153 29 Sept 2021 · 2,235 MW · 96 30 Sept 2021 · 2,664 MW · 55 1 Oct 2021 · 1,081 MW · 60 2 Oct 2021 · 402 MW · 21 3 Oct 2021 · 700 MW · 25 4 Oct 2021 · 179 MW · 23 5 Oct 2021 · 16 MW · 3 7 Oct 2021 · 15 MW · 2
4 Sept 9 Sept 14 Sept 19 Sept 21 Sept 24 Sept 29 Sept 4 Oct

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
58km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9 ha in 2016, 9,582 ha in 2017, 47,540 ha in 2018, 6,656 ha in 2019, 9,686 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 60,848 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 60% of the area of London (948 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Broome where it started
    94,813 ha reached on 4 Sept
    1.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area0.25 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.25 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
4 Sept 35.4 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Sept 35.9 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
6 Sept 33.4 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
7 Sept 33.3 °C 11 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
8 Sept 32.1 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
9 Sept 33.6 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Sept 31.8 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept 33.0 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
12 Sept 31.5 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Sept 30.1 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Sept 31.3 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Sept 33.6 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 31.6 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Sept 30.9 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Sept 36.8 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
19 Sept 35.5 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Sept 39.1 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Sept 39.5 °C 15 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
22 Sept 36.9 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
23 Sept 34.5 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
24 Sept 29.2 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Sept 29.0 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept 29.6 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept 32.3 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Sept 31.2 °C 45 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Sept 32.8 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Sept 33.0 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Oct 32.0 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Oct 30.7 °C 42 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Oct 29.3 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Oct 29.4 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Oct 28.5 °C 52 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Oct 28.1 °C 54 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Oct 29.7 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Oct after 32.5 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Oct after 31.0 °C 51 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Oct after 33.8 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Oct after 35.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
12 Oct after 33.2 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Oct after 37.0 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
14 Oct after 39.8 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
15 Oct after 36.4 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
16 Oct after 31.3 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Oct after 31.9 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2021
After · 14 Oct 2021

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 · 3,567Every 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 4 September 2021 and 7 October 2021: 34 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 94,758 hectares (947.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Broome (94,813 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 84, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,567 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.