Cook fire, 23 May 2026 Cook, Lockhart River
The fire started on 23 May 2026 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,517 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 119th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 41 in Australia in 2026, of 859.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Cook · 2020Cook · 2023Cook · 2021Cook · 2018
- Burnt area
- 44,517ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 23 May 2026 – 13 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 23 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,247
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 484MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,415 ha in 2016, 4,524 ha in 2017, 9,852 ha in 2018, 5,850 ha in 2019, 14,669 ha in 2020, 13,523 ha in 2021, 7,605 ha in 2022, 26,999 ha in 2023, 10,609 ha in 2024, 5,670 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 42,117 ha that had burned before.
- 8,147 ha Cook fire, September 2020 11,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,071 ha Cook fire, June 2023 11,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,138 ha Cook fire, October 2021 8,759 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,158 ha Cook fire, October 2018 5,209 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,026 ha Cook fire, September 2023 101,112 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,002 ha Cook fire, November 2020 9,184 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,911 ha Cook fire, October 2016 15,049 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,592 ha Cook fire, June 2023 6,396 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Cook where it started44,600 ha reached on 17 May0.4 %
-
66 ha reached on 31 May0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 May | 28.7 °C | 50 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 24 May | 29.3 °C | 47 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 May | 29.4 °C | 46 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 May | 27.7 °C | 60 % | 30 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 27 May | 31.1 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 28 May | 29.9 °C | 48 % | 20 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 May | 29.6 °C | 44 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 May | 29.3 °C | 47 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 31 May | 29.8 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Jun | 29.6 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Jun | 29.7 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Jun | 29.5 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 4 Jun | 29.8 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Jun | 29.7 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Jun | 28.7 °C | 53 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Jun | 28.0 °C | 46 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Jun | 28.1 °C | 45 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Jun | 29.3 °C | 47 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Jun | 28.2 °C | 60 % | 52 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Jun | 29.5 °C | 55 % | 55 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Jun | 28.7 °C | 48 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Jun | 28.3 °C | 49 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Jun after | 28.1 °C | 49 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Jun after | 27.7 °C | 55 % | 56 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Jun after | 26.2 °C | 63 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Jun after | 27.5 °C | 59 % | 53 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Jun after | 28.6 °C | 48 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Jun after | 29.4 °C | 53 % | 42 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Jun after | 28.8 °C | 49 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Jun after | 28.2 °C | 54 % | 44 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Jun after | 28.2 °C | 52 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Jun after | 28.5 °C | 54 % | 53 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Jun after | 27.4 °C | 55 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Jun after | 27.3 °C | 58 % | 53 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Jun after | 28.4 °C | 51 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Jun after | 27.8 °C | 55 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 28 Jun after | 28.5 °C | 54 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Jun after | 27.8 °C | 61 % | 53 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Jun after | 28.2 °C | 56 % | 54 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 31 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 39 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 1,247Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 46,995 haCook25 September 2023 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 36,141 haLockhart River14 September 2018 · 29 days · 24 km away
- 25,547 haCook12 September 2025 · 25 days · 26 km away
- 101,112 haCook12 September 2023 · 71 days · 27 km away
- 107,293 haCook10 November 2016 · 45 days · 29 km away
- 29,369 haLockhart RiverNovember 2019 · 28 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cook fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 May 2026 and 13 June 2026: 22 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 44,517 hectares (445.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cook (44,600 ha, 0.4 %); Lockhart River (66 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,247 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.
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.