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Cook fire, 26 September 2020 Cook, Lockhart River

Out · last detection 25 Nov 2020, 03:55 UTC

The fire started on 26 September 2020 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 61 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 132,556 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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 17th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1743 with a page). Number 2 in Australia in 2020, of 320.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cook · 2018Cook · 2018Cook · 2018Cook · 2017

Burnt area
132,556ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
61days
26 Sept 2020 – 25 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
26 Sept
2020
Heat detections
6,605
in a single hotspot: 271 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
802MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Sept25 Nov
25 Nov 2020

How it evolved, day by day

26 Sept 2020 · 9 MW · 5 27 Sept 2020 · 185 MW · 24 28 Sept 2020 · 150 MW · 10 29 Sept 2020 · 61 MW · 22 30 Sept 2020 · 241 MW · 60 1 Oct 2020 · 396 MW · 67 2 Oct 2020 · 468 MW · 79 4 Oct 2020 · 37 MW · 23 5 Oct 2020 · 230 MW · 68 6 Oct 2020 · 554 MW · 156 7 Oct 2020 · 2,231 MW · 264 8 Oct 2020 · 2,888 MW · 317 9 Oct 2020 · 1,802 MW · 186 10 Oct 2020 · 377 MW · 116 11 Oct 2020 · 416 MW · 128 12 Oct 2020 · 1,193 MW · 188 13 Oct 2020 · 377 MW · 74 14 Oct 2020 · 201 MW · 32 15 Oct 2020 · 147 MW · 46 16 Oct 2020 · 228 MW · 81 17 Oct 2020 · 408 MW · 108 18 Oct 2020 · 952 MW · 102 19 Oct 2020 · 1,025 MW · 79 20 Oct 2020 · 934 MW · 105 21 Oct 2020 · 731 MW · 90 22 Oct 2020 · 758 MW · 173 23 Oct 2020 · 1,295 MW · 204 24 Oct 2020 · 1,844 MW · 171 25 Oct 2020 · 729 MW · 98 26 Oct 2020 · 231 MW · 98 27 Oct 2020 · 455 MW · 174 28 Oct 2020 · 1,098 MW · 125 29 Oct 2020 · 313 MW · 33 30 Oct 2020 · 69 MW · 14 31 Oct 2020 · 236 MW · 53 1 Nov 2020 · 3,484 MW · 197 2 Nov 2020 · 797 MW · 145 3 Nov 2020 · 813 MW · 140 4 Nov 2020 · 1,340 MW · 138 5 Nov 2020 · 2,189 MW · 167 6 Nov 2020 · 502 MW · 140 7 Nov 2020 · 1,432 MW · 212 8 Nov 2020 · 419 MW · 72 9 Nov 2020 · 1,003 MW · 129 10 Nov 2020 · 1,646 MW · 255 11 Nov 2020 · 1,377 MW · 152 12 Nov 2020 · 118 MW · 92 13 Nov 2020 · 1,805 MW · 223 14 Nov 2020 · 1,600 MW · 249 15 Nov 2020 · 1,817 MW · 161 16 Nov 2020 · 1,177 MW · 195 17 Nov 2020 · 277 MW · 47 18 Nov 2020 · 555 MW · 101 20 Nov 2020 · 381 MW · 25 21 Nov 2020 · 216 MW · 29 22 Nov 2020 · 22 MW · 13 23 Nov 2020 · 221 MW · 28 24 Nov 2020 · 358 MW · 85 25 Nov 2020 · 493 MW · 37
26 Sept 6 Oct 15 Oct 24 Oct 1 Nov 2 Nov 11 Nov 21 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

36°high
76km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.7 mm on 26 Nov.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,313 ha in 2016, 27,823 ha in 2017, 62,719 ha in 2018, 2,421 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 82,471 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 84% of the area of London (1,326 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
    132,026 ha reached on 26 Sept
    1.2 %
  2. Lockhart River
    675 ha reached on 13 Nov
    0.2 %

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)
26 Sept 34.0 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Sept 32.3 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept 31.7 °C 41 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Sept 30.5 °C 49 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Sept 30.3 °C 38 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Oct 30.7 °C 39 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Oct 30.6 °C 36 % 76 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Oct 28.8 °C 50 % 75 km/h 1.1 mm High 31
4 Oct 28.4 °C 55 % 72 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
5 Oct 31.3 °C 40 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Oct 31.7 °C 37 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Oct 32.4 °C 37 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Oct 31.5 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Oct 32.2 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Oct 31.3 °C 41 % 50 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
11 Oct 32.6 °C 37 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Oct 32.6 °C 36 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Oct 32.4 °C 47 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Oct 31.5 °C 45 % 58 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
15 Oct 32.0 °C 40 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Oct 31.4 °C 41 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
17 Oct 31.4 °C 41 % 53 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
18 Oct 33.2 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Oct 32.4 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
20 Oct 35.2 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Oct 33.9 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Oct 34.2 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct 33.8 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Oct 32.9 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Oct 34.0 °C 43 % 34 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 19
26 Oct 34.9 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Oct 35.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Oct 33.1 °C 48 % 39 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 21
29 Oct 34.4 °C 41 % 49 km/h 2.9 mm Moderate 18
30 Oct 32.3 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
31 Oct 33.1 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
1 Nov 33.4 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Nov 33.1 °C 47 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Nov 31.9 °C 51 % 56 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
4 Nov 33.1 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Nov 34.8 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Nov 35.0 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Nov 34.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Nov 33.2 °C 49 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Nov 32.5 °C 39 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Nov 32.8 °C 37 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Nov 33.0 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
12 Nov 32.6 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
13 Nov 34.5 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Nov 35.0 °C 38 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Nov 33.5 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Nov 34.8 °C 34 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Nov 33.8 °C 44 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Nov 34.6 °C 32 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Nov 31.4 °C 57 % 56 km/h 1.3 mm High 22
20 Nov 33.0 °C 42 % 58 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
21 Nov 33.1 °C 44 % 58 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
22 Nov 33.1 °C 45 % 52 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
23 Nov 31.6 °C 51 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
24 Nov 33.4 °C 51 % 40 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 13
25 Nov 35.6 °C 38 % 36 km/h 23.7 mm Low 5
26 Nov after 33.0 °C 48 % 40 km/h 5.7 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Sept 2020
After · 2 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 · 6,605Every 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 26 September 2020 and 25 November 2020: 61 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 132,556 hectares (1,325.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cook (132,026 ha, 1.2 %); Lockhart River (675 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 76 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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 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
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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. 6,605 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.