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Central Desert fire, 1 October 2023 Central Desert, Victoria Daly

Out · last detection 3 Nov 2023, 16:26 UTC

The fire started on 1 October 2023 in Central Desert, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 226,233 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 9th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3512 with a page). Number 6 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Victoria Daly · 2017Victoria Daly · 2017Central Desert · 2025Central Desert · 2025

Burnt area
226,233ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
1 Oct 2023 – 2 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
1 Oct
2023
Heat detections
9,897
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
67
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
3.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Oct2 Nov
3 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

1 Oct 2023 · 82 MW · 12 2 Oct 2023 · 58 MW · 8 3 Oct 2023 · 3,242 MW · 77 4 Oct 2023 · 2,897 MW · 106 5 Oct 2023 · 253 MW · 74 6 Oct 2023 · 586 MW · 112 7 Oct 2023 · 754 MW · 104 8 Oct 2023 · 930 MW · 106 9 Oct 2023 · 185 MW · 44 10 Oct 2023 · 315 MW · 85 11 Oct 2023 · 1,502 MW · 60 12 Oct 2023 · 613 MW · 96 13 Oct 2023 · 458 MW · 89 14 Oct 2023 · 352 MW · 54 15 Oct 2023 · 978 MW · 131 16 Oct 2023 · 361 MW · 110 17 Oct 2023 · 937 MW · 130 18 Oct 2023 · 12,282 MW · 422 19 Oct 2023 · 3,041 MW · 210 20 Oct 2023 · 2,735 MW · 209 21 Oct 2023 · 5,098 MW · 305 22 Oct 2023 · 17,603 MW · 857 23 Oct 2023 · 3,771 MW · 348 24 Oct 2023 · 19,535 MW · 1615 25 Oct 2023 · 9,112 MW · 740 26 Oct 2023 · 5,604 MW · 967 27 Oct 2023 · 8,192 MW · 958 28 Oct 2023 · 8,926 MW · 875 29 Oct 2023 · 2,477 MW · 405 30 Oct 2023 · 2,663 MW · 232 31 Oct 2023 · 1,357 MW · 154 1 Nov 2023 · 701 MW · 44 2 Nov 2023 · 277 MW · 55 3 Nov 2023 · 4,327 MW · 103
1 Oct 6 Oct 11 Oct 16 Oct 21 Oct 24 Oct 26 Oct 31 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
63km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 10 Nov.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,517 ha in 2016, 29,476 ha in 2017, 1,901 ha in 2018, 3,464 ha in 2021, 3,550 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 36,704 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.4 times the area of London (2,262 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
    181,109 ha
    0.6 %
  2. Victoria Daly
    43,979 ha
    0.3 %

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)
1 Oct 37.0 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
2 Oct 38.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Oct 37.8 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Oct 37.0 °C 14 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 90
5 Oct 33.1 °C 15 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
6 Oct 33.4 °C 12 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
7 Oct 32.1 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
8 Oct 33.4 °C 10 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
9 Oct 34.9 °C 11 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
10 Oct 35.7 °C 11 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
11 Oct 36.5 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
12 Oct 38.2 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
13 Oct 37.6 °C 12 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
14 Oct 36.0 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
15 Oct 35.5 °C 5 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
16 Oct 35.7 °C 5 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 90
17 Oct 35.7 °C 9 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 91
18 Oct 35.7 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
19 Oct 37.2 °C 5 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
20 Oct 38.2 °C 5 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Oct 39.5 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
22 Oct 38.4 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Oct 38.1 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Oct 39.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
25 Oct 38.3 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
26 Oct 34.4 °C 12 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
27 Oct 33.7 °C 7 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
28 Oct 36.2 °C 3 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
29 Oct 37.6 °C 4 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
30 Oct 39.6 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
31 Oct 40.0 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Nov 39.2 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Nov 38.6 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Nov after 40.0 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
4 Nov after 39.9 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
5 Nov after 40.5 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
6 Nov after 39.6 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
7 Nov after 40.4 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Nov after 39.2 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
9 Nov after 40.3 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Very extreme 76
10 Nov after 38.2 °C 24 % 35 km/h 2.1 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 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 24 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 228 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 75: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak228 µg/m³
Days over the guideline19 days
PM10326 µg/m³
Optical depth3.69
29301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345
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 · 0Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 October 2023 and 2 November 2023: 33 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 226,233 hectares (2,262.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Central Desert (181,109 ha, 0.6 %); Victoria Daly (43,979 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 91, 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 · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 4 November 2023 → 2 November 2023.
  2. Start date: 25 September 2023 → 1 October 2023.
  3. Last day with fire: 2 November 2023 → 4 November 2023.
  4. Start date: 1 October 2023 → 25 September 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.