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Central Desert fire, 4 October 2023 Central Desert, Halls Creek

Out · last detection 2 Nov 2023, 16:46 UTC

The fire started on 4 October 2023 in Central Desert, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 91,458 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 66th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3521 with a page). Number 39 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Central Desert · 2018Central Desert · 2017Central Desert · 2018Central Desert · 2022

Burnt area
91,458ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
4 Oct 2023 – 2 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
4 Oct
2023
Heat detections
4,901
in a single hotspot: 539 MW
Danger at start
79
Very extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
2.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Oct2 Nov
2 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

4 Oct 2023 · 2,066 MW · 216 5 Oct 2023 · 8,061 MW · 808 6 Oct 2023 · 6,119 MW · 697 7 Oct 2023 · 18,815 MW · 646 8 Oct 2023 · 4,548 MW · 521 9 Oct 2023 · 3,697 MW · 277 10 Oct 2023 · 1,593 MW · 235 11 Oct 2023 · 963 MW · 86 12 Oct 2023 · 1,017 MW · 117 13 Oct 2023 · 761 MW · 88 14 Oct 2023 · 722 MW · 74 15 Oct 2023 · 1,029 MW · 102 16 Oct 2023 · 452 MW · 63 17 Oct 2023 · 142 MW · 24 18 Oct 2023 · 219 MW · 19 19 Oct 2023 · 87 MW · 20 20 Oct 2023 · 254 MW · 25 21 Oct 2023 · 524 MW · 29 22 Oct 2023 · 2,915 MW · 78 23 Oct 2023 · 96 MW · 20 24 Oct 2023 · 626 MW · 53 25 Oct 2023 · 108 MW · 19 26 Oct 2023 · 1,470 MW · 174 27 Oct 2023 · 685 MW · 184 28 Oct 2023 · 449 MW · 53 29 Oct 2023 · 927 MW · 78 30 Oct 2023 · 563 MW · 47 31 Oct 2023 · 2,104 MW · 98 1 Nov 2023 · 717 MW · 46 2 Nov 2023 · 4 MW · 4
4 Oct 7 Oct 9 Oct 14 Oct 19 Oct 24 Oct 29 Oct

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high
60km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,599 ha in 2016, 6,824 ha in 2017, 11,221 ha in 2018, 759 ha in 2021, 1,928 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 58% of the area of London (915 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Central Desert where it started
    73,921 ha reached on 4 Oct
    0.3 %
  2. Halls Creek
    17,553 ha reached on 5 Oct
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
4 Oct 34.1 °C 9 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
5 Oct 33.0 °C 10 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
6 Oct 32.6 °C 11 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 87
7 Oct 31.3 °C 9 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
8 Oct 32.4 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
9 Oct 33.6 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
10 Oct 34.5 °C 8 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
11 Oct 35.2 °C 7 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
12 Oct 37.4 °C 6 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
13 Oct 37.1 °C 10 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 98
14 Oct 35.4 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
15 Oct 35.2 °C 7 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
16 Oct 35.1 °C 6 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
17 Oct 35.3 °C 8 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
18 Oct 35.4 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
19 Oct 36.6 °C 5 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Oct 38.2 °C 5 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Oct 38.4 °C 5 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Oct 38.6 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
23 Oct 38.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
24 Oct 39.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 70
25 Oct 37.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Oct 33.5 °C 12 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
27 Oct 34.1 °C 7 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
28 Oct 35.5 °C 4 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
29 Oct 37.4 °C 3 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
30 Oct 39.7 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
31 Oct 39.5 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
1 Nov 40.0 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Nov 38.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 70
3 Nov after 38.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 54
4 Nov after 36.6 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 59
5 Nov after 38.9 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
6 Nov after 39.0 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Nov after 40.0 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 65
8 Nov after 36.9 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 65
9 Nov after 40.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Nov after 39.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Nov after 39.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Nov after 37.4 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Very extreme 72

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 27 Sept 2023
After · 9 Nov 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 26 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 127 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak127 µg/m³
Days over the guideline25 days
PM10185 µg/m³
Optical depth3.32
2345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 4,901Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Central Desert fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 October 2023 to 2 November 2023 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2023 to 31 October 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 91,458 hectares (914.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Central Desert (73,921 ha, 0.3 %); Halls Creek (17,553 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 98, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 31 October 2023 → 2 November 2023.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 000.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 October 2023 to 31 October 2023. 4,901 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.