Doomadgee fire, 12 May 2018 Doomadgee, Burke
The fire started on 12 May 2018 in Doomadgee, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,649 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 795th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 404 in Australia in 2018, of 923.
- Burnt area
- 9,649ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 12 May 2018 – 17 May 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 May
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 363
- in a single hotspot: 64 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 356MW
- 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 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 868 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Doomadgee where it started8,610 ha reached on 12 May4.7 %
-
1,093 ha reached on 13 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 May | 26.7 °C | 18 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 13 May | 26.7 °C | 18 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 14 May | 27.7 °C | 15 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 May | 28.0 °C | 16 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 May | 28.4 °C | 17 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 17 May | 29.5 °C | 23 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 18 May after | 28.8 °C | 22 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 19 May after | 29.9 °C | 26 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 May after | 30.8 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 May after | 29.8 °C | 26 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 22 May after | 29.5 °C | 20 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 23 May after | 28.2 °C | 19 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 May after | 28.4 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 May after | 29.7 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 May after | 29.8 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 May after | 29.9 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 May after | 30.1 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 May after | 30.3 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 May after | 30.8 °C | 20 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 May after | 29.0 °C | 23 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Jun after | 27.7 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Jun after | 27.7 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Jun after | 27.8 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
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 · 363Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Doomadgee fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 May 2018 and 17 May 2018: 6 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 9,649 hectares (96.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Doomadgee (8,610 ha, 4.7 %); Burke (1,093 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.