Central Desert fire, December 2018 Central Desert, Barkly
The fire started on 13 December 2018 in Central Desert, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,398 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3154th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 840 in Australia in 2018, of 923.
- Burnt area
- 5,398ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 13 Dec 2018 – 16 Dec 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 13 Dec
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 154
- in a single hotspot: 125 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- 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 20 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 started4,752 ha reached on 13 Dec0.0 %
-
680 ha reached on 13 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Dec | 41.3 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 50 |
| 14 Dec | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 15 Dec | 37.9 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 16 Dec | 39.8 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 17 Dec after | 41.2 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 18 Dec after | 42.9 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 19 Dec after | 44.4 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 20 Dec after | 41.5 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 21 Dec after | 42.2 °C | 13 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 22 Dec after | 39.3 °C | 11 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 23 Dec after | 38.0 °C | 4 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 91 |
| 24 Dec after | 39.4 °C | 3 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 25 Dec after | 41.6 °C | 6 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 26 Dec after | 41.4 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
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 · 154Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,633 haCentral Desert16 September 2018 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 7,811 haBarkly15 September 2018 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 10,563 haCentral Desert29 October 2017 · 9 days · 29 km away
- 28,079 haBarkly18 September 2018 · 21 days · 33 km away
- 8,412 haBarkly27 September 2017 · 3 days · 38 km away
- 479,336 haBarkly18 October 2023 · 15 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Central Desert fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 December 2018 and 16 December 2018: 4 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 5,398 hectares (54.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Central Desert (4,752 ha, 0.0 %); Barkly (680 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.