Burke fire, 20 July 2026 Burke
The fire started on 20 July 2026 in Burke, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 78,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 55th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 16 in Australia in 2026, of 859.
- Burnt area
- 78,404ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 43days
- 20 Jul 2026 – 31 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 20 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,773
- in a single hotspot: 128 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 313MW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 861 ha in 2016, 7,366 ha in 2017, 21,266 ha in 2018, 161 ha in 2019, 7,296 ha in 2020, 12,595 ha in 2021, 3,619 ha in 2022, 26,365 ha in 2023, 14,139 ha in 2024, 13,385 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 59,217 ha that had burned before.
- 17,088 ha Burke fire, August 2023 231,553 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,669 ha Burke fire, August 2024 14,404 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,315 ha Burke fire, December 2021 12,274 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,112 ha Burke fire, September 2018 7,655 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,654 ha Burke fire, August 2020 7,125 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,555 ha Burke fire, October 2018 8,497 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,525 ha Burke fire, September 2025 17,964 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,076 ha Burke fire, July 2022 10,842 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Burke where it started78,668 ha reached on 20 Jul2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jul | 26.0 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Jul | 26.2 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Jul | 28.2 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Jul | 29.0 °C | 25 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Jul | 29.1 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jul | 26.8 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Jul | 25.0 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Jul | 23.0 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jul | 24.8 °C | 17 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jul | 28.5 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jul | 28.7 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jul | 29.7 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 31 Jul | 28.9 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 1 Aug | 27.9 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Aug | 29.5 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Aug | 28.6 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Aug | 29.2 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Aug | 29.8 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Aug | 30.7 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Aug | 31.0 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Aug | 31.6 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Aug | 32.5 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Aug | 27.8 °C | 24 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Aug | 32.5 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Aug | 34.5 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Aug | 28.5 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Aug | 30.8 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Aug | 31.0 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Aug | 30.9 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Aug | 30.1 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Aug | 31.0 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Aug | 30.5 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Aug | 32.0 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Aug | 32.0 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 22 Aug | 32.2 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Aug | 32.5 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Aug | 32.2 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Aug | 30.2 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Aug | 30.0 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Aug | 31.0 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Aug | 32.0 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 29 Aug | 32.2 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 30 Aug | 30.1 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Aug | 29.7 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 18 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Sept after | 36.6 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 8 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Sept after | 36.5 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
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 15 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 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 · 1,773Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 231,553 haBurke22 August 2023 · 53 days · 7 km away
- 17,964 haBurke21 September 2025 · 7 days · 27 km away
- 18,582 haBarkly28 August 2024 · 11 days · 28 km away
- 16,530 haBurke28 October 2022 · 12 days · 28 km away
- 36,354 haBurke11 October 2018 · 23 days · 38 km away
- 43,494 haBarkly28 September 2023 · 25 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Burke fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 July 2026 to 31 August 2026 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 July 2026 to 31 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 78,404 hectares (784.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Burke (78,668 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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
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.