Burke fire, December 2024 Burke, Mount Isa
The fire started on 25 December 2024 in Burke, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,420 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 1291th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 463 in Australia in 2024, of 638.
- Burnt area
- 6,420ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 25 Dec 2024 – 31 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 25 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 206
- in a single hotspot: 379 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.6GW
- sum of detected power
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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 2 Jan.
This area had burned before
55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,117 ha in 2017, 140 ha in 2018, 640 ha in 2021, 149 ha in 2022, 46 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,553 ha that had burned before.
- 2,850 ha Burke fire, December 2017 16,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 551 ha Burke fire, December 2021 13,274 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Mount Isa fire, December 2021 9,944 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 32 ha Mount Isa fire, December 2023 125,964 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Burke where it started5,761 ha reached on 24 Dec0.1 %
-
725 ha reached on 27 Dec0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Dec | 39.2 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 19 Dec | 32.3 °C | 63 % | 29 km/h | 8.5 mm | Very low 1 |
| 20 Dec | 34.1 °C | 49 % | 26 km/h | 11.2 mm | Very low 0 |
| 21 Dec | 33.8 °C | 47 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Dec | 36.8 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 23 Dec | 38.4 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 24 Dec | 38.9 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Dec | 40.1 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Dec | 38.6 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Dec | 38.3 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 28 Dec | 37.9 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 29 Dec | 37.8 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Dec | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Dec | 39.8 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Jan after | 40.3 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 30 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 206Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Burke fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 December 2024 and 31 December 2024: 7 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 6,420 hectares (64.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Burke (5,761 ha, 0.1 %); Mount Isa (725 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
- 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
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.