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Cook fire, 11 October 2018 Cook, Lockhart River

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

The fire started on 11 October 2018 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,122 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 347th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 163 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cook · 2016Lockhart River · 2016Cook · 2023Cook · 2025

Burnt area
18,122ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
11 Oct 2018 – 6 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
11 Oct
2018
Heat detections
1,203
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
237MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Oct6 Nov
7 Nov 2018

How it evolved, day by day

11 Oct 2018 · 316 MW · 34 12 Oct 2018 · 176 MW · 32 13 Oct 2018 · 108 MW · 22 14 Oct 2018 · 24 MW · 5 15 Oct 2018 · 14 MW · 2 16 Oct 2018 · 9 MW · 4 17 Oct 2018 · 49 MW · 17 18 Oct 2018 · 55 MW · 15 19 Oct 2018 · 59 MW · 12 20 Oct 2018 · 98 MW · 19 21 Oct 2018 · 141 MW · 39 22 Oct 2018 · 74 MW · 29 23 Oct 2018 · 580 MW · 73 24 Oct 2018 · 668 MW · 85 25 Oct 2018 · 964 MW · 56 26 Oct 2018 · 10 MW · 3 27 Oct 2018 · 71 MW · 31 28 Oct 2018 · 192 MW · 44 29 Oct 2018 · 227 MW · 40 31 Oct 2018 · 106 MW · 20 1 Nov 2018 · 426 MW · 39 2 Nov 2018 · 324 MW · 60 3 Nov 2018 · 232 MW · 34 4 Nov 2018 · 83 MW · 6 5 Nov 2018 · 299 MW · 44 6 Nov 2018 · 1,027 MW · 53 7 Nov 2018 · 58 MW · 21
11 Oct 15 Oct 19 Oct 23 Oct 27 Oct 1 Nov 5 Nov 6 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
64km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 21 Nov.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,840 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 11% of the area of London (181 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. Cook where it started
    13,699 ha reached on 5 Oct
    0.1 %
  2. Lockhart River
    4,479 ha reached on 15 Oct
    1.2 %

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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
4 Oct 30.5 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Oct 31.7 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Oct 32.0 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Oct 31.2 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Oct 30.4 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Oct 30.1 °C 44 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Oct 31.5 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Oct 30.9 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Oct 32.6 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Oct 33.3 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
14 Oct 31.5 °C 55 % 43 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16
15 Oct 31.7 °C 50 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
16 Oct 31.8 °C 48 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Oct 32.3 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Oct 32.5 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Oct 32.3 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Oct 32.2 °C 46 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Oct 33.8 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Oct 33.8 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Oct 32.5 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Oct 32.2 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Oct 31.6 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Oct 30.9 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Oct 32.5 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Oct 32.7 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
29 Oct 33.4 °C 50 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Oct 31.0 °C 60 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm High 22
31 Oct 31.6 °C 44 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Nov 31.6 °C 48 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Nov 32.4 °C 48 % 64 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
3 Nov 32.0 °C 52 % 58 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
4 Nov 32.0 °C 54 % 57 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
5 Nov 32.4 °C 49 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
6 Nov 32.6 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Nov after 32.5 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Nov after 32.8 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Nov after 33.6 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
10 Nov after 32.3 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Nov after 32.1 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Nov after 32.1 °C 48 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
13 Nov after 31.8 °C 47 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Nov after 32.6 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Nov after 32.8 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Nov after 32.1 °C 39 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Nov after 32.0 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Nov after 32.2 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Nov after 32.5 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
20 Nov after 31.4 °C 51 % 46 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
21 Nov after 31.8 °C 52 % 39 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Oct 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 · 1,203Every 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 11 October 2018 and 6 November 2018: 27 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 18,122 hectares (181.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cook (13,699 ha, 0.1 %); Lockhart River (4,479 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,203 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.