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Cook fire, 23 October 2023 Cook, Hope Vale

Out · last detection 11 Dec 2023, 03:23 UTC

The fire started on 23 October 2023 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 107,807 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.

It is the 33th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 30 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Burnt area
107,807ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
50days
23 Oct 2023 – 11 Dec 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
23 Oct
2023
Heat detections
5,447
in a single hotspot: 214 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
47.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Dec 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Oct11 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
62km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.6 mm on 12 Dec.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 82,448 ha in 2016, 8,635 ha in 2017, 26,997 ha in 2018, 9,804 ha in 2019, 80,778 ha in 2020, 1,229 ha in 2021, 1,364 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 106,763 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cook where it started
    107,687 ha reached on 23 Oct
    1.0 %
  2. Hope Vale
    1,487 ha reached on 28 Oct
    1.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

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)
16 Oct 31.5 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Oct 33.0 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Oct 30.3 °C 45 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Oct 30.0 °C 38 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Oct 30.6 °C 39 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Oct 30.6 °C 39 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Oct 31.0 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Oct 33.6 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Oct 31.8 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Oct 31.5 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Oct 33.9 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Oct 32.8 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Oct 31.9 °C 42 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Oct 28.9 °C 44 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Oct 32.3 °C 34 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Oct 30.5 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Nov 31.1 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Nov 30.1 °C 44 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Nov 31.2 °C 40 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Nov 31.1 °C 43 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Nov 32.0 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Nov 31.2 °C 43 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Nov 31.6 °C 41 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Nov 31.5 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Nov 31.2 °C 41 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
10 Nov 31.2 °C 38 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Nov 32.7 °C 30 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Nov 31.1 °C 37 % 55 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
13 Nov 31.0 °C 38 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Nov 30.4 °C 45 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Nov 32.2 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Nov 32.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Nov 34.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Nov 32.3 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Nov 31.7 °C 38 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Nov 31.9 °C 46 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Nov 31.1 °C 56 % 52 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 17
22 Nov 32.2 °C 50 % 50 km/h 0.8 mm High 25
23 Nov 31.7 °C 46 % 51 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
24 Nov 31.3 °C 52 % 48 km/h 0.8 mm High 25
25 Nov 31.9 °C 45 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Nov 32.9 °C 49 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Nov 32.9 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Nov 32.4 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
29 Nov 37.5 °C 35 % 37 km/h 2.2 mm High 22
30 Nov 36.9 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
1 Dec 36.9 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm High 31
2 Dec 34.5 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.9 mm High 25
3 Dec 35.0 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Dec 34.6 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
5 Dec 34.1 °C 41 % 54 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 39
6 Dec 33.0 °C 38 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Dec 32.6 °C 39 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Dec 32.4 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
9 Dec 32.9 °C 44 % 45 km/h 1.6 mm High 22
10 Dec 34.0 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
11 Dec 37.8 °C 29 % 44 km/h 2.0 mm High 34
12 Dec after 35.3 °C 40 % 42 km/h 17.6 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Oct 2023
After · 18 Dec 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 12 December 2023 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak72 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10103 µg/m³
Optical depth0.89
21222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301234567891011121314
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 · 5,447Every 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 23 October 2023 and 11 December 2023: 50 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 107,807 hectares (1,078.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cook (107,687 ha, 1.0 %); Hope Vale (1,487 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 62 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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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.