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Cook fire, 5 September 2018 Cook

Out · last detection 7 Nov 2018, 15:47 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2018 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 63 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 115,896 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

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.

It is the 28th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 6 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
115,896ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
63days
5 Sept 2018 – 6 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
5 Sept
2018
Heat detections
4,810
in a single hotspot: 207 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
38.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Nov 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept6 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
64km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39,805 ha in 2016, 7,255 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Cook where it started
    117,646 ha reached on 3 Sept
    1.1 %

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)
5 Sept 27.3 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Sept 28.2 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Sept 28.7 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Sept 29.1 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept 29.8 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 28.6 °C 38 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Sept 26.2 °C 45 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Sept 28.0 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Sept 27.5 °C 45 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Sept 27.7 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept 29.8 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept 33.0 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Sept 31.2 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept 28.1 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept 28.1 °C 40 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Sept 29.7 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 29.5 °C 36 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 27.9 °C 43 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Sept 27.8 °C 37 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Sept 27.3 °C 42 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
25 Sept 27.1 °C 42 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Sept 27.8 °C 38 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Sept 27.3 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Sept 26.5 °C 38 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept 27.6 °C 38 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Sept 28.9 °C 35 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Oct 28.8 °C 37 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Oct 27.3 °C 38 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Oct 27.5 °C 37 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Oct 28.5 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Oct 33.0 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Oct 29.9 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Oct 30.1 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Oct 30.5 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Oct 31.1 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Oct 31.8 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Oct 31.9 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Oct 32.3 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Oct 30.8 °C 51 % 39 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 16
14 Oct 29.3 °C 54 % 37 km/h 2.0 mm Low 10
15 Oct 31.0 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Oct 30.9 °C 45 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Oct 31.3 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Oct 31.2 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Oct 31.6 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
20 Oct 31.5 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
21 Oct 32.3 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
22 Oct 34.5 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 42
23 Oct 30.7 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Oct 32.3 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Oct 31.0 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Oct 32.3 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Oct 33.7 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Oct 35.3 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Oct 34.4 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Oct 32.3 °C 39 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
31 Oct 31.0 °C 42 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Nov 31.3 °C 40 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
2 Nov 29.7 °C 47 % 56 km/h 0.9 mm High 28
3 Nov 30.1 °C 49 % 53 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
4 Nov 30.9 °C 43 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
5 Nov 32.4 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Nov 32.6 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Nov after 32.4 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Nov after 33.3 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Nov after 31.4 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Nov after 31.1 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
11 Nov after 31.0 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Nov after 31.1 °C 40 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Nov after 31.2 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Nov after 31.5 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Nov after 32.2 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Nov after 31.1 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Aug 2018
After · 13 Nov 2018

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 · 4,810Every 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 Cook fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2018 and 6 November 2018: 63 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 115,896 hectares (1,159.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cook (117,646 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

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.

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.