Central Desert fire, October 2022 Central Desert
The fire started on 23 October 2022 in Central Desert, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,307 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 1599th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 222 in Australia in 2022, of 566.
- Burnt area
- 9,307ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 23 Oct 2022 – 26 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 23 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 344
- in a single hotspot: 275 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.9GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,068 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
Central Desert where it started9,462 ha reached on 23 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Oct | 36.9 °C | 13 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 24 Oct | 34.0 °C | 19 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 25 Oct | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 26 Oct | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 27 Oct after | 28.3 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Oct after | 29.8 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Oct after | 27.6 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Oct after | 36.7 °C | 25 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 31 Oct after | 35.4 °C | 21 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 1 Nov after | 27.0 °C | 12 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Nov after | 26.1 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Nov after | 26.5 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Nov after | 28.6 °C | 10 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 5 Nov after | 31.4 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 27 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 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 · 344Every 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 23 October 2022 and 26 October 2022: 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 9,307 hectares (93.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Central Desert (9,462 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.