Cook fire, 4 June 2026 Cook, Aurukun
The fire started on 4 June 2026 in Cook, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 50,712 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 97th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 31 in Australia in 2026, of 859.
- Burnt area
- 50,712ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 26days
- 4 Jun 2026 – 29 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 4 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,281
- in a single hotspot: 110 MW
- Energy released
- 11.7GW
- sum of detected power
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.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,609 ha in 2016, 8,856 ha in 2017, 9,261 ha in 2018, 13,087 ha in 2019, 6,832 ha in 2020, 7,054 ha in 2021, 15,930 ha in 2022, 9,853 ha in 2023, 6,801 ha in 2024, 1,419 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 44,176 ha that had burned before.
- 4,520 ha Cook fire, July 2018 11,996 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,577 ha Cook fire, October 2021 33,248 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,666 ha Cook fire, July 2022 7,083 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,560 ha Cook fire, July 2019 6,474 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 371 ha Cook fire, October 2021 5,572 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 33 ha Cook fire, October 2021 32,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cook where it started50,885 ha reached on 4 Jun0.5 %
-
180 ha reached on 4 Jun0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Jul after | 32.8 °C | 27 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 10 Jul after | 32.5 °C | 32 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 11 Jul after | 33.2 °C | 29 % | 14 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 12 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 13 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 14 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 30 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 15 Jul after | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 25 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
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 5 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.0 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 · 1,281Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 79,582 haAurukunAugust 2022 · 33 days · 22 km away
- 26,910 haCook12 October 2016 · 11 days · 22 km away
- 68,368 haAurukun August 2026 · 79 days · 28 km away
- 32,872 haCook22 October 2021 · 21 days · 32 km away
- 25,898 haAurukun2 October 2018 · 23 days · 32 km away
- 33,248 haCook23 October 2021 · 19 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cook fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 June 2026 and 29 June 2026: 26 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 50,712 hectares (507.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cook (50,885 ha, 0.5 %); Aurukun (180 ha, 0.0 %).
- 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
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.