How long did the Cook fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2016 and 8 November 2016: 25 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 27,363 hectares (273.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cook (23,065 ha, 0.2 %); Napranum (3,000 ha, 1.5 %); Aurukun (1,380 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.

AU · Australia · 2016-10-15 → 2016-11-08

Cook fire, 15 October 2016 Cook, Napranum, Aurukun

Out · last detection 8 Nov 2016, 04:08 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2016 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,363 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 197th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 38 in Australia in 2016, of 427.

Burnt area: 27,363ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 25days; 15 Oct 2016 – 8 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; local government areas
Started on: 15 Oct; 2016
Heat detections: 1,024; in a single hotspot: 312 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 12.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Nov 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct8 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242526272829303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

50km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 14 Nov.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Cook where it started

23,065 ha reached on 12 Oct

0.2 %
Napranum

3,000 ha reached on 14 Oct

1.5 %
Aurukun

1,380 ha reached on 16 Oct

0.2 %

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)
12 Oct	32.8 °C	43 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
13 Oct	33.0 °C	39 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
14 Oct	34.4 °C	34 %	28 km/h	1.4 mm	High 22
15 Oct	35.2 °C	30 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 41
16 Oct	35.1 °C	35 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Oct	35.8 °C	30 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 36
18 Oct	35.3 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
19 Oct	36.4 °C	30 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
20 Oct	35.8 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
21 Oct	36.1 °C	30 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Oct	34.6 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Oct	34.0 °C	37 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
24 Oct	34.1 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Oct	34.4 °C	41 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
26 Oct	36.3 °C	29 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
27 Oct	36.3 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
28 Oct	35.1 °C	35 %	32 km/h	1.6 mm	High 27
29 Oct	35.6 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.7 mm	High 34
30 Oct	36.5 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
31 Oct	36.8 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Nov	35.3 °C	30 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Nov	36.9 °C	28 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
3 Nov	37.0 °C	29 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
4 Nov	36.4 °C	35 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
5 Nov	34.2 °C	45 %	34 km/h	0.5 mm	High 33
6 Nov	33.8 °C	41 %	36 km/h	1.1 mm	High 28
7 Nov	33.1 °C	44 %	37 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 20
8 Nov	33.7 °C	46 %	35 km/h	0.8 mm	High 24
9 Nov after	33.9 °C	43 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
10 Nov after	35.3 °C	43 %	44 km/h	0.2 mm	High 34
11 Nov after	34.0 °C	47 %	41 km/h	1.2 mm	High 26
12 Nov after	33.0 °C	53 %	38 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 18
13 Nov after	32.9 °C	55 %	41 km/h	7.7 mm	Low 7
14 Nov after	34.0 °C	50 %	41 km/h	2.9 mm	Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Oct 2016

After · 15 Nov 2016

Before After

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 · 1,024Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cook fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2016 and 8 November 2016: 25 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 27,363 hectares (273.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cook (23,065 ha, 0.2 %); Napranum (3,000 ha, 1.5 %); Aurukun (1,380 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.

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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

Where it burned