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Cook fire, 12 September 2023 Lockhart River, Cook

Out · last detection 20 Nov 2023, 16:06 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2023 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 71 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 101,112 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 39th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 34 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Lockhart River · 2018Cook · 2016Lockhart River · 2018Lockhart River · 2019

Burnt area
101,112ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
71days
12 Sept 2023 – 21 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
12 Sept
2023
Heat detections
5,163
in a single hotspot: 352 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
569MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept21 Nov
20 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

12 Sept 2023 · 9 MW · 2 14 Sept 2023 · 7 MW · 1 15 Sept 2023 · 12 MW · 2 16 Sept 2023 · 34 MW · 5 18 Sept 2023 · 19 MW · 10 19 Sept 2023 · 42 MW · 6 20 Sept 2023 · 6 MW · 7 21 Sept 2023 · 391 MW · 25 22 Sept 2023 · 144 MW · 33 23 Sept 2023 · 308 MW · 38 24 Sept 2023 · 169 MW · 46 25 Sept 2023 · 410 MW · 56 26 Sept 2023 · 266 MW · 41 27 Sept 2023 · 80 MW · 16 28 Sept 2023 · 4 MW · 2 30 Sept 2023 · 16 MW · 4 1 Oct 2023 · 58 MW · 12 4 Oct 2023 · 17 MW · 3 5 Oct 2023 · 78 MW · 15 6 Oct 2023 · 764 MW · 64 7 Oct 2023 · 1,565 MW · 142 8 Oct 2023 · 522 MW · 90 9 Oct 2023 · 53 MW · 16 10 Oct 2023 · 675 MW · 82 11 Oct 2023 · 1,454 MW · 127 13 Oct 2023 · 133 MW · 29 14 Oct 2023 · 1,800 MW · 201 15 Oct 2023 · 1,080 MW · 188 16 Oct 2023 · 1,003 MW · 140 17 Oct 2023 · 1,155 MW · 160 18 Oct 2023 · 323 MW · 30 19 Oct 2023 · 82 MW · 54 20 Oct 2023 · 441 MW · 134 21 Oct 2023 · 475 MW · 90 22 Oct 2023 · 427 MW · 100 23 Oct 2023 · 653 MW · 102 24 Oct 2023 · 317 MW · 70 25 Oct 2023 · 194 MW · 58 26 Oct 2023 · 280 MW · 36 27 Oct 2023 · 671 MW · 71 28 Oct 2023 · 805 MW · 71 29 Oct 2023 · 1,688 MW · 158 30 Oct 2023 · 423 MW · 107 31 Oct 2023 · 959 MW · 162 1 Nov 2023 · 1,556 MW · 136 2 Nov 2023 · 35 MW · 7 3 Nov 2023 · 1,012 MW · 123 4 Nov 2023 · 70 MW · 30 5 Nov 2023 · 474 MW · 97 6 Nov 2023 · 461 MW · 104 7 Nov 2023 · 396 MW · 134 8 Nov 2023 · 1,163 MW · 117 9 Nov 2023 · 618 MW · 99 10 Nov 2023 · 430 MW · 114 11 Nov 2023 · 1,174 MW · 212 12 Nov 2023 · 1,699 MW · 230 13 Nov 2023 · 1,343 MW · 145 14 Nov 2023 · 983 MW · 113 15 Nov 2023 · 269 MW · 60 16 Nov 2023 · 775 MW · 157 17 Nov 2023 · 1,378 MW · 142 18 Nov 2023 · 1,182 MW · 143 19 Nov 2023 · 1,137 MW · 102 20 Nov 2023 · 227 MW · 28
12 Sept 24 Sept 7 Oct 14 Oct 18 Oct 28 Oct 7 Nov 17 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
62km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 29 Nov.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 42,326 ha in 2016, 2,068 ha in 2017, 54,638 ha in 2018, 32,729 ha in 2019, 26,417 ha in 2020, 21,388 ha in 2021, 11,398 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 92,549 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 64% of the area of London (1,011 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. Lockhart River
    78,349 ha reached on 21 Sept
    22 %
  2. Cook where it started
    23,254 ha reached on 5 Sept
    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 2025
Built-up area0.14 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.14 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
5 Sept 31.1 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept 32.2 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Sept 29.7 °C 61 % 52 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 19
8 Sept 31.9 °C 48 % 54 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
9 Sept 32.0 °C 47 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 30.9 °C 43 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Sept 30.1 °C 38 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Sept 29.7 °C 39 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept 29.1 °C 46 % 58 km/h 0.8 mm High 31
14 Sept 28.9 °C 43 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 29.9 °C 31 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept 30.2 °C 32 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept 28.4 °C 41 % 54 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 40
18 Sept 31.3 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept 31.9 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept 31.2 °C 47 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
21 Sept 33.3 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept 33.1 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept 30.8 °C 35 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Sept 29.4 °C 47 % 56 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
25 Sept 30.9 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept 30.9 °C 36 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept 30.7 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
28 Sept 30.4 °C 46 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept 29.4 °C 50 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Sept 30.4 °C 40 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Oct 31.2 °C 38 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Oct 31.9 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Oct 32.4 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Oct 32.6 °C 43 % 36 km/h 1.0 mm High 25
5 Oct 34.6 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Oct 31.4 °C 50 % 49 km/h 0.8 mm High 28
7 Oct 32.0 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Oct 30.7 °C 43 % 60 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
9 Oct 30.3 °C 47 % 50 km/h 1.2 mm High 26
10 Oct 32.2 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Oct 32.2 °C 33 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Oct 28.6 °C 58 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Oct 32.4 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Oct 34.2 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Oct 34.5 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Oct 34.5 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Oct 36.5 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Oct 33.0 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Oct 32.0 °C 44 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Oct 32.4 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Oct 33.3 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Oct 35.4 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Oct 36.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Oct 35.4 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Oct 33.6 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Oct 34.9 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Oct 34.8 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Oct 33.9 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Oct 32.6 °C 36 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Oct 32.6 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Oct 33.4 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Nov 32.9 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Nov 34.4 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Nov 34.1 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Nov 33.0 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Nov 34.5 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Nov 33.5 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Nov 34.1 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Nov 34.1 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Nov 33.4 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Nov 34.2 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Nov 33.8 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Nov 33.6 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Nov 34.7 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Nov 33.5 °C 37 % 40 km/h 1.3 mm High 30
15 Nov 32.5 °C 44 % 40 km/h 1.4 mm High 23
16 Nov 34.8 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Nov 35.4 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Nov 34.7 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Nov 33.3 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Nov 34.6 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Nov 34.0 °C 47 % 48 km/h 1.3 mm High 26
22 Nov after 34.1 °C 45 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm High 31
23 Nov after 33.7 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
24 Nov after 34.4 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Nov after 34.6 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Nov after 35.8 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Nov after 35.3 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Nov after 35.0 °C 44 % 40 km/h 3.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Nov after 36.8 °C 37 % 29 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2023
After · 28 Nov 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 14 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1044 µg/m³
Optical depth0.65
10111213141516171819202122232425262728293012345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 5,163Every 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 12 September 2023 and 21 November 2023: 71 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 101,112 hectares (1,011.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lockhart River (78,349 ha, 22 %); Cook (23,254 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 5,163 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 2025, 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.