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Cook fire, 19 September 2020 Cook

Out · last detection 27 Nov 2020, 16:05 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2020 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 70 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 247,350 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.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 4th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1742 with a page). The largest in Australia in 2020, of 319.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cook · 2016Cook · 2017Hope Vale · 2018Cook · 2019

Burnt area
247,350ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
70days
19 Sept 2020 – 27 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
19 Sept
2020
Heat detections
11,373
in a single hotspot: 259 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept27 Nov
27 Nov 2020

How it evolved, day by day

19 Sept 2020 · 4 MW · 4 20 Sept 2020 · 57 MW · 21 21 Sept 2020 · 77 MW · 20 22 Sept 2020 · 50 MW · 16 23 Sept 2020 · 106 MW · 14 24 Sept 2020 · 9 MW · 3 26 Sept 2020 · 6 MW · 7 27 Sept 2020 · 1,215 MW · 130 28 Sept 2020 · 2,047 MW · 208 29 Sept 2020 · 3,507 MW · 277 30 Sept 2020 · 5,225 MW · 537 1 Oct 2020 · 4,198 MW · 472 2 Oct 2020 · 3,443 MW · 339 3 Oct 2020 · 1,935 MW · 222 4 Oct 2020 · 1,294 MW · 134 5 Oct 2020 · 251 MW · 70 6 Oct 2020 · 550 MW · 137 7 Oct 2020 · 246 MW · 76 8 Oct 2020 · 1,440 MW · 220 9 Oct 2020 · 766 MW · 61 10 Oct 2020 · 330 MW · 40 11 Oct 2020 · 179 MW · 51 12 Oct 2020 · 699 MW · 149 13 Oct 2020 · 1,527 MW · 200 14 Oct 2020 · 134 MW · 26 15 Oct 2020 · 1,107 MW · 134 16 Oct 2020 · 1,273 MW · 169 17 Oct 2020 · 1,500 MW · 213 18 Oct 2020 · 1,120 MW · 169 19 Oct 2020 · 2,731 MW · 121 20 Oct 2020 · 1,111 MW · 157 21 Oct 2020 · 6,257 MW · 290 22 Oct 2020 · 1,583 MW · 280 23 Oct 2020 · 3,469 MW · 258 24 Oct 2020 · 3,534 MW · 273 25 Oct 2020 · 1,246 MW · 56 26 Oct 2020 · 618 MW · 62 27 Oct 2020 · 345 MW · 45 28 Oct 2020 · 451 MW · 91 29 Oct 2020 · 342 MW · 75 30 Oct 2020 · 1,154 MW · 57 31 Oct 2020 · 525 MW · 60 1 Nov 2020 · 2,806 MW · 270 2 Nov 2020 · 2,674 MW · 317 3 Nov 2020 · 3,142 MW · 327 4 Nov 2020 · 7,249 MW · 384 5 Nov 2020 · 4,054 MW · 298 6 Nov 2020 · 2,296 MW · 201 7 Nov 2020 · 2,938 MW · 342 8 Nov 2020 · 3,662 MW · 365 9 Nov 2020 · 1,053 MW · 103 10 Nov 2020 · 724 MW · 127 11 Nov 2020 · 2,107 MW · 266 12 Nov 2020 · 360 MW · 162 13 Nov 2020 · 806 MW · 222 14 Nov 2020 · 4,358 MW · 349 15 Nov 2020 · 5,913 MW · 442 16 Nov 2020 · 3,303 MW · 236 17 Nov 2020 · 3,735 MW · 348 18 Nov 2020 · 343 MW · 93 19 Nov 2020 · 1,142 MW · 227 20 Nov 2020 · 758 MW · 82 21 Nov 2020 · 90 MW · 23 22 Nov 2020 · 60 MW · 37 23 Nov 2020 · 686 MW · 117 24 Nov 2020 · 663 MW · 70 25 Nov 2020 · 5 MW · 3 26 Nov 2020 · 295 MW · 16 27 Nov 2020 · 4 MW · 2
19 Sept 30 Sept 10 Oct 20 Oct 30 Oct 4 Nov 9 Nov 19 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

37°high
74km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 2 Dec.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 156,472 ha in 2016, 17,260 ha in 2017, 18,551 ha in 2018, 12,895 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 177,400 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.6 times the area of London (2,474 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
    250,116 ha reached on 19 Sept
    2.4 %

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)
19 Sept 30.3 °C 47 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Sept 31.5 °C 43 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Sept 30.9 °C 46 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept 32.4 °C 45 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept 32.8 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Sept 31.7 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Sept 32.6 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Sept 33.7 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Sept 32.0 °C 39 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Sept 31.7 °C 39 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept 30.4 °C 41 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Sept 30.4 °C 40 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Oct 31.0 °C 40 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Oct 29.6 °C 45 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Oct 30.3 °C 42 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Oct 29.8 °C 43 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Oct 30.9 °C 40 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Oct 31.0 °C 37 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Oct 31.3 °C 39 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Oct 32.0 °C 33 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Oct 32.8 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Oct 32.7 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Oct 30.2 °C 51 % 56 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
12 Oct 31.9 °C 42 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Oct 32.7 °C 40 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Oct 30.6 °C 51 % 62 km/h 1.2 mm High 25
15 Oct 30.9 °C 41 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Oct 30.3 °C 44 % 56 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
17 Oct 31.8 °C 36 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Oct 32.2 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Oct 33.9 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Oct 34.5 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Oct 33.1 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Oct 33.7 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
23 Oct 34.0 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
24 Oct 33.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
25 Oct 34.1 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
26 Oct 34.2 °C 43 % 38 km/h 5.0 mm Low 8
27 Oct 33.3 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
28 Oct 34.1 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
29 Oct 34.5 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm High 24
30 Oct 33.2 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
31 Oct 33.9 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Nov 34.3 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Nov 34.0 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Nov 34.0 °C 31 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Nov 33.8 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Nov 34.5 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Nov 36.1 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Nov 34.7 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Nov 33.8 °C 42 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Nov 32.8 °C 42 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Nov 31.7 °C 46 % 59 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
11 Nov 33.5 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Nov 31.8 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Nov 35.1 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
14 Nov 34.9 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
15 Nov 34.8 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Nov 34.3 °C 36 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Nov 34.3 °C 34 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Nov 32.3 °C 50 % 58 km/h 1.2 mm High 27
19 Nov 31.6 °C 50 % 60 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
20 Nov 31.1 °C 50 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Nov 32.3 °C 49 % 61 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
22 Nov 32.3 °C 48 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Nov 33.2 °C 44 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Nov 35.6 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
25 Nov 34.3 °C 36 % 36 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 20
26 Nov 36.6 °C 33 % 37 km/h 1.1 mm High 30
27 Nov 31.9 °C 56 % 50 km/h 7.4 mm Low 8
28 Nov after 32.1 °C 51 % 50 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 17
29 Nov after 32.4 °C 53 % 49 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
30 Nov after 33.1 °C 49 % 43 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
1 Dec after 34.4 °C 43 % 50 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
2 Dec after 34.2 °C 50 % 53 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Sept 2020
After · 4 Dec 2020

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 · 11,373Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 September 2020 to 27 November 2020 (70 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 September 2020 to 26 November 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 247,350 hectares (2,473.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cook (250,116 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 26 November 2020 → 27 November 2020.
  2. Start date: 26 September 2020 → 19 September 2020.

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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 September 2020 to 26 November 2020. 11,373 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.