Croydon fire, 15 November 2020 Croydon, Etheridge
The fire started on 15 November 2020 in Croydon, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,024 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 257th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 29 in Australia in 2020, of 320.
- Burnt area
- 24,024ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 15 Nov 2020 – 25 Nov 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 15 Nov
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 921
- in a single hotspot: 375 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.3GW
- 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.
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 26 Nov.
This area had burned before
50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,885 ha in 2016, 852 ha in 2017, 5,475 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,078 ha that had burned before.
- 2,243 ha Etheridge fire, December 2019 14,333 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 290 ha Croydon fire, November 2016 26,909 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 121 ha Croydon fire, November 2016 11,986 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Croydon where it started23,409 ha reached on 15 Nov0.8 %
-
661 ha reached on 18 Nov0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Nov | 40.5 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Nov | 40.9 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 17 Nov | 41.4 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Nov | 40.0 °C | 10 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 19 Nov | 38.9 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 20 Nov | 38.7 °C | 15 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 21 Nov | 39.4 °C | 12 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 22 Nov | 39.3 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 23 Nov | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 24 Nov | 40.7 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Nov | 37.7 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 4.3 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Nov after | 39.3 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 1.8 mm | High 31 |
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.
Detections table · 921Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,058 haCroydon12 November 2016 · 12 days · 21 km away
- 13,956 haCroydon19 October 2025 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 26,879 haEtheridge14 November 2020 · 15 days · 32 km away
- 14,333 haEtheridge14 December 2019 · 7 days · 34 km away
- 28,871 haCroydon29 October 2025 · 15 days · 37 km away
- 26,909 haCroydon16 November 2016 · 8 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Croydon fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 November 2020 and 25 November 2020: 11 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 24,024 hectares (240.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Croydon (23,409 ha, 0.8 %); Etheridge (661 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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
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.