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Central Desert fire, 30 August 2026 Victoria Daly, Central Desert

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2026, 04:51 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Central Desert, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 38,990 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 261th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3517 with a page). Number 58 in Australia in 2026, of 902.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Victoria Daly · 2023Victoria Daly · 2024Victoria Daly · 2017Central Desert · 2025

Burnt area
38,990ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
30 Aug 2026 – 26 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
30 Aug
2026
Heat detections
1,050
in a single hotspot: 203 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
428MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug26 Sept
26 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

30 Aug 2026 · 81 MW · 11 31 Aug 2026 · 43 MW · 8 1 Sept 2026 · 60 MW · 11 2 Sept 2026 · 19 MW · 6 4 Sept 2026 · 19 MW · 4 5 Sept 2026 · 14 MW · 4 6 Sept 2026 · 513 MW · 50 7 Sept 2026 · 97 MW · 12 8 Sept 2026 · 141 MW · 23 9 Sept 2026 · 165 MW · 45 10 Sept 2026 · 552 MW · 63 11 Sept 2026 · 366 MW · 59 12 Sept 2026 · 270 MW · 35 13 Sept 2026 · 372 MW · 38 14 Sept 2026 · 4,316 MW · 128 15 Sept 2026 · 522 MW · 117 16 Sept 2026 · 698 MW · 122 17 Sept 2026 · 479 MW · 71 18 Sept 2026 · 155 MW · 47 20 Sept 2026 · 104 MW · 27 21 Sept 2026 · 1,612 MW · 95 22 Sept 2026 · 388 MW · 62 23 Sept 2026 · 4 MW · 2 24 Sept 2026 · 90 MW · 4 25 Sept 2026 · 18 MW · 3 26 Sept 2026 · 34 MW · 3
30 Aug 4 Sept 8 Sept 12 Sept 14 Sept 16 Sept 21 Sept 25 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
58km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,343 ha in 2016, 6,421 ha in 2017, 186 ha in 2018, 100 ha in 2021, 25,562 ha in 2023, 11,619 ha in 2024, 997 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 33,639 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 25% of the area of London (390 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. Victoria Daly
    33,226 ha reached on 31 Aug
    0.2 %
  2. Central Desert where it started
    6,277 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
30 Aug 32.2 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
31 Aug 31.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Sept 31.6 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Sept 32.1 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept 32.7 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Sept 33.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Sept 35.5 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Sept 35.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 34.6 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Sept 36.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept 36.3 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Sept 34.9 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
11 Sept 35.3 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Sept 34.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept 35.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Sept 36.1 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
15 Sept 35.0 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
16 Sept 33.8 °C 15 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
17 Sept 32.9 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
18 Sept 33.6 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
19 Sept 33.9 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
20 Sept 32.6 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Sept 34.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Sept 35.5 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
23 Sept 36.0 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
24 Sept 34.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Sept 35.8 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
26 Sept 33.7 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
27 Sept after 33.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept after 34.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
29 Sept after 35.6 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Sept after 35.6 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
1 Oct after 34.5 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Oct after 36.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Oct after 36.3 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Oct after 36.6 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Oct after 35.9 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Oct after 37.7 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2026
After · 3 Oct 2026

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 7 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak29 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1030 µg/m³
Optical depth0.29
2829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 1,050Every 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 30 August 2026 to 26 September 2026 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 August 2026 to 24 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 38,990 hectares (389.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Victoria Daly (33,226 ha, 0.2 %); Central Desert (6,277 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 83, 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: 25 September 2026 → 26 September 2026.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 August 2026 to 24 September 2026. 1,050 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.