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AU · Australia · –

Clarence Valley fire, 2 September 2019 Clarence Valley, Glen Innes Severn

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2019, 03:56 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2019 in Clarence Valley, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 38,875 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 46 in Australia in 2019, of 288.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Armidale · 2019Lismore · 2019Clarence Valley · 2018Glen Innes Severn · 2019

Burnt area
38,875ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
40days
2 Sept 2019 – 11 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
2 Sept
2019
Heat detections
3,497
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
657MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept11 Oct
11 Oct 2019

How it evolved, day by day

2 Sept 2019 · 1 MW · 2 4 Sept 2019 · 61 MW · 13 5 Sept 2019 · 152 MW · 29 6 Sept 2019 · 699 MW · 134 7 Sept 2019 · 765 MW · 197 8 Sept 2019 · 731 MW · 153 9 Sept 2019 · 990 MW · 162 10 Sept 2019 · 461 MW · 164 11 Sept 2019 · 514 MW · 49 12 Sept 2019 · 476 MW · 77 13 Sept 2019 · 850 MW · 148 14 Sept 2019 · 581 MW · 167 15 Sept 2019 · 566 MW · 197 16 Sept 2019 · 1,864 MW · 300 17 Sept 2019 · 379 MW · 52 19 Sept 2019 · 50 MW · 27 20 Sept 2019 · 67 MW · 40 21 Sept 2019 · 71 MW · 33 22 Sept 2019 · 160 MW · 49 23 Sept 2019 · 348 MW · 60 24 Sept 2019 · 74 MW · 16 27 Sept 2019 · 227 MW · 87 28 Sept 2019 · 1,000 MW · 72 29 Sept 2019 · 596 MW · 118 2 Oct 2019 · 2 MW · 3 3 Oct 2019 · 147 MW · 49 4 Oct 2019 · 349 MW · 119 6 Oct 2019 · 21 MW · 22 7 Oct 2019 · 5,634 MW · 409 8 Oct 2019 · 3,025 MW · 472 9 Oct 2019 · 710 MW · 66 10 Oct 2019 · 89 MW · 7 11 Oct 2019 · 18 MW · 4
2 Sept 10 Sept 17 Sept 27 Sept 7 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

36°high
71km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.8 mm on 12 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 25% of the area of London (389 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. Clarence Valley where it started
    40,481 ha
    3.9 %
  2. Glen Innes Severn
    385 ha
    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 2020
Built-up area0.52 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.52 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)

Started with Very dry air: 28 % of the area in Australia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Sept 26.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Sept 27.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Sept 30.6 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Sept 31.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Sept 31.2 °C 10 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept 23.2 °C 15 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept 23.0 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept 18.4 °C 15 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept 20.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Sept 20.8 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Sept 25.7 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Sept 26.3 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Sept 29.1 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept 26.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept 29.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Sept 22.9 °C 42 % 44 km/h 14.7 mm Very low 2
18 Sept 20.9 °C 45 % 25 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 2
19 Sept 22.8 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
20 Sept 21.6 °C 54 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 4
21 Sept 22.8 °C 51 % 37 km/h 1.1 mm Low 6
22 Sept 28.4 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
23 Sept 28.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Sept 19.5 °C 52 % 40 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 4
25 Sept 23.3 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
26 Sept 19.8 °C 70 % 36 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 1
27 Sept 27.7 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
28 Sept 29.4 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Sept 27.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Sept 23.3 °C 35 % 49 km/h 2.7 mm Low 7
1 Oct 19.1 °C 58 % 36 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 4
2 Oct 24.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
3 Oct 27.2 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
4 Oct 30.5 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Oct 23.9 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Oct 27.7 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
7 Oct 36.2 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Oct 33.3 °C 19 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Oct 23.1 °C 22 % 58 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
10 Oct 21.2 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Oct 16.8 °C 58 % 36 km/h 9.6 mm Very low 0
12 Oct after 14.1 °C 79 % 27 km/h 16.8 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 24.7, a minimum humidity of 14% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 24.7
Minimum humidity 14 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Armidale fire, December 2019
6,365 ha 7 days FWI 24.4 Min. humidity 18 % 64 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 22 Dec.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
15,928 ha
median area
53 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 15 had it)

It was 2.4 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 40 days, against 11 days.

Only 3 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 2 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

16.8 mmfirst rain
12 Octthe day after it ended
71km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 11 Oct, and on 12 Oct 16.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 15, with a median of 1.5 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2019
After · 18 Oct 2019

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 · 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 Clarence Valley fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2019 and 11 October 2019: 40 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 38,875 hectares (388.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Clarence Valley (40,481 ha, 3.9 %); Glen Innes Severn (385 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 15,928 ha; 53 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 2 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.

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 · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 40,724 → 38,875 ha.
  2. Start date: 30 August 2019 → 2 September 2019.
  3. Start date: 2 September 2019 → 30 August 2019.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 2020, 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.