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Cook fire, 22 September 2023 Cook

Out · last detection 14 Nov 2023, 03:30 UTC

The fire started on 22 September 2023 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 54 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,786 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 303th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 263 in Australia in 2023, of 1237.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cook · 2016Cook · 2018Cook · 2026Cook · 2025

Burnt area
20,786ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
54days
22 Sept 2023 – 14 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
22 Sept
2023
Heat detections
906
in a single hotspot: 198 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
148MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Sept14 Nov
14 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

22 Sept 2023 · 99 MW · 52 23 Sept 2023 · 3,086 MW · 188 24 Sept 2023 · 322 MW · 66 25 Sept 2023 · 454 MW · 91 26 Sept 2023 · 351 MW · 37 27 Sept 2023 · 191 MW · 38 29 Sept 2023 · 31 MW · 12 30 Sept 2023 · 167 MW · 35 1 Oct 2023 · 135 MW · 22 2 Oct 2023 · 4 MW · 1 3 Oct 2023 · 6 MW · 5 4 Oct 2023 · 42 MW · 12 5 Oct 2023 · 101 MW · 13 6 Oct 2023 · 11 MW · 2 7 Oct 2023 · 90 MW · 10 8 Oct 2023 · 1 MW · 2 9 Oct 2023 · 10 MW · 7 10 Oct 2023 · 71 MW · 9 11 Oct 2023 · 237 MW · 33 13 Oct 2023 · 74 MW · 9 14 Oct 2023 · 130 MW · 17 15 Oct 2023 · 98 MW · 24 16 Oct 2023 · 114 MW · 16 17 Oct 2023 · 128 MW · 14 18 Oct 2023 · 8 MW · 2 20 Oct 2023 · 7 MW · 4 21 Oct 2023 · 32 MW · 6 22 Oct 2023 · 61 MW · 11 23 Oct 2023 · 81 MW · 7 24 Oct 2023 · 65 MW · 14 25 Oct 2023 · 32 MW · 11 26 Oct 2023 · 44 MW · 9 27 Oct 2023 · 110 MW · 11 28 Oct 2023 · 45 MW · 4 29 Oct 2023 · 27 MW · 7 30 Oct 2023 · 24 MW · 7 31 Oct 2023 · 344 MW · 27 1 Nov 2023 · 152 MW · 16 3 Nov 2023 · 21 MW · 5 5 Nov 2023 · 4 MW · 4 6 Nov 2023 · 11 MW · 9 7 Nov 2023 · 82 MW · 15 8 Nov 2023 · 81 MW · 10 9 Nov 2023 · 19 MW · 4 10 Nov 2023 · 4 MW · 2 11 Nov 2023 · 5 MW · 1 12 Nov 2023 · 5 MW · 1 13 Nov 2023 · 8 MW · 2 14 Nov 2023 · 12 MW · 2
22 Sept 23 Sept 30 Sept 7 Oct 15 Oct 23 Oct 30 Oct 8 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

35°high
65km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 21 Nov.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,239 ha in 2016, 7,512 ha in 2018, 4,475 ha in 2019, 1,094 ha in 2020, 954 ha in 2021, 61 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,350 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (208 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
    20,894 ha reached on 22 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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable 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)
15 Sept 28.2 °C 39 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Sept 28.2 °C 40 % 56 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
17 Sept 27.5 °C 47 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Sept 29.8 °C 47 % 51 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
19 Sept 30.0 °C 46 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Sept 30.5 °C 51 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
21 Sept 31.9 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept 32.6 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Sept 30.0 °C 40 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept 29.3 °C 46 % 60 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
25 Sept 29.5 °C 43 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept 29.5 °C 43 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept 28.8 °C 50 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept 28.7 °C 49 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Sept 29.1 °C 48 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Sept 29.3 °C 45 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Oct 30.2 °C 43 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Oct 30.3 °C 45 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Oct 31.9 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Oct 32.4 °C 45 % 39 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
5 Oct 32.9 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
6 Oct 31.5 °C 48 % 50 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
7 Oct 31.1 °C 46 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Oct 29.7 °C 49 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Oct 29.6 °C 47 % 54 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
10 Oct 31.7 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Oct 32.6 °C 35 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Oct 30.5 °C 50 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Oct 32.5 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Oct 33.8 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Oct 33.2 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Oct 33.5 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Oct 35.2 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Oct 32.1 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Oct 31.1 °C 46 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Oct 31.7 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Oct 32.4 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Oct 33.4 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Oct 34.9 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Oct 34.1 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Oct 33.8 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Oct 34.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Oct 35.4 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Oct 32.9 °C 46 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Oct 31.0 °C 43 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Oct 30.7 °C 43 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Oct 32.9 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Nov 32.0 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Nov 33.5 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Nov 31.9 °C 41 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Nov 32.0 °C 43 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Nov 33.3 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Nov 32.6 °C 39 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Nov 32.5 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Nov 33.1 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Nov 32.7 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Nov 32.1 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Nov 32.3 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Nov 32.1 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Nov 32.6 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Nov 34.3 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Nov after 33.6 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Nov after 34.5 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Nov after 35.6 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Nov after 34.7 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Nov after 33.0 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Nov after 33.2 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
21 Nov after 32.6 °C 56 % 50 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Sept 2023
After · 21 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 24 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1029 µg/m³
Optical depth0.59
2021222324252627282930123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617
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 · 906Every 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 22 September 2023 and 14 November 2023: 54 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 20,786 hectares (207.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cook (20,894 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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
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. 906 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.