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Doomadgee fire, 9 May 2018 Doomadgee, Burke

Out · last detection 18 May 2018, 16:32 UTC

The fire started on 9 May 2018 in Doomadgee, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,524 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 535th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 248 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
13,524ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
9 May 2018 – 18 May 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
9 May
2018
Heat detections
496
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 May18 May

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
57km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 166 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Doomadgee where it started
    10,326 ha reached on 9 May
    5.6 %
  2. Burke
    3,283 ha reached on 10 May
    0.1 %

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)
7 May 33.3 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 May 33.8 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 May 33.7 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 May 34.1 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 May 29.7 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 May 27.0 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
13 May 27.2 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 May 28.3 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
15 May 28.5 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
16 May 28.9 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
17 May 30.0 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
18 May 29.1 °C 20 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
19 May after 30.5 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 May after 31.5 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 May after 30.3 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 May after 30.0 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 May after 28.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 May after 29.4 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 May after 30.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 May after 31.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 May after 31.2 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 May after 31.2 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 May after 31.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 May after 31.2 °C 18 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
31 May after 29.3 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Jun after 28.6 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 May 2018
After · 25 May 2018

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 · 496Every 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 Doomadgee fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 May 2018 and 18 May 2018: 10 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 13,524 hectares (135.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Doomadgee (10,326 ha, 5.6 %); Burke (3,283 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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.

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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.