Broome fire, 12 September 2025 Broome
The fire started on 12 September 2025 in Broome, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 402,858 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
It is the largest fire in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2732 with a page). The largest in Australia in 2025, of 1124.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Broome · 2023Broome · 2018Broome · 2018Broome · 2018
- Burnt area
- 402,858ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 12 Sept 2025 – 4 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 11,616
- in a single hotspot: 1,123 MW
- Danger at start
- 70
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 7.1GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,835 ha in 2016, 25,329 ha in 2017, 91,651 ha in 2018, 2,248 ha in 2019, 798 ha in 2020, 17,996 ha in 2021, 40,126 ha in 2022, 117,989 ha in 2023, 31,857 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 254,807 ha that had burned before.
- 26,763 ha Broome fire, May 2023 50,409 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,312 ha Broome fire, October 2018 21,518 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,922 ha Broome fire, October 2018 18,196 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,021 ha Broome fire, October 2018 18,919 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,753 ha Broome fire, April 2018 25,108 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,252 ha Broome fire, July 2024 9,140 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,195 ha Broome fire, June 2022 8,881 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,783 ha Broome fire, November 2023 21,606 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Broome where it started406,097 ha reached on 12 Sept7.4 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.56 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Sept | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 13 Sept | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 14 Sept | 33.1 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 15 Sept | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 16 Sept | 32.6 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Sept | 33.8 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Sept | 33.4 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Sept | 35.3 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Sept | 37.5 °C | 12 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 21 Sept | 37.6 °C | 15 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 85 |
| 22 Sept | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 87 |
| 23 Sept | 33.7 °C | 10 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 95 |
| 24 Sept | 33.6 °C | 11 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 88 |
| 25 Sept | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 26 Sept | 36.5 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 27 Sept | 36.6 °C | 6 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 28 Sept | 36.3 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 29 Sept | 35.6 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 30 Sept | 36.2 °C | 17 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 1 Oct | 37.0 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 2 Oct | 39.7 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 3 Oct | 39.4 °C | 12 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 4 Oct | 37.9 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 5 Oct after | 38.3 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 6 Oct after | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 7 Oct after | 36.8 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Oct after | 36.3 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Oct after | 36.7 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Oct after | 34.5 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Oct after | 36.6 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Oct after | 38.4 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Oct after | 37.7 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 14 Oct after | 37.2 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 50 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 26 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 90 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 11,616Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 50,409 haBroome23 May 2023 · 11 days · 22 km away
- 18,919 haBroome16 October 2018 · 10 days · 26 km away
- 25,314 haBroome23 May 2023 · 10 days · 30 km away
- 21,606 haBroome25 November 2023 · 18 days · 33 km away
- 25,108 haBroome13 April 2018 · 4 days · 38 km away
- 24,134 haBroome12 August 2026 · 10 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Broome fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 September 2025 to 4 October 2025 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 September 2025 to 4 October 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 402,858 hectares (4,028.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Broome (406,097 ha, 7.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 95, 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 13 September 2025 → 12 September 2025.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 September 2025 to 4 October 2025. 11,616 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.