Central Desert fire, 18 August 2017 Central Desert
The fire started on 18 August 2017 in Central Desert, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,838 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2867th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 698 in Australia in 2017, of 862.
- Burnt area
- 5,838ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 18 Aug 2017 – 22 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 260
- in a single hotspot: 483 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.5GW
- 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 38 days 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
-
Central Desert where it started5,877 ha reached on 18 Aug0.0 %
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 Aug | 29.4 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 19 Aug | 28.1 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Aug | 29.3 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Aug | 31.5 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Aug | 28.8 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Aug after | 30.8 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 19 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Aug after | 24.3 °C | 17 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Aug after | 25.5 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 27 Aug after | 25.0 °C | 16 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Aug after | 23.4 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Aug after | 24.3 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Aug after | 24.2 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 31 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Sept after | 28.2 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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.
Detections table · 260Every 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 Central Desert fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2017 and 22 August 2017: 5 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 5,838 hectares (58.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Central Desert (5,877 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.