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AU · Australia · –

East Arnhem fire, 17 September 2018 East Arnhem

Out · last detection 13 Nov 2018, 04:27 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2018 in East Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 58 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,578 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

This entry is probably a savanna fire in Australia’s tropical north, not a bushfire like those in the south of the country. Millions of hectares of northern savanna and grassland burn every year: much of it in burns lit on purpose early in the dry season (traditional fire management, parks and cattle stations), the rest in grass fires that return to the same ground every few years. This is our assumption, based on the location; it is not confirmed. That is why it is left out of the wildfire rankings.

Compare with…

Suggestions: East Arnhem · 2017East Arnhem · 2025East Arnhem · 2023East Arnhem · 2020

Burnt area
16,578ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
58days
17 Sept 2018 – 13 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
17 Sept
2018
Heat detections
1,129
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
65
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
203MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept13 Nov
13 Nov 2018

How it evolved, day by day

17 Sept 2018 · 2 MW · 1 18 Sept 2018 · 315 MW · 23 19 Sept 2018 · 74 MW · 8 20 Sept 2018 · 93 MW · 14 21 Sept 2018 · 80 MW · 12 22 Sept 2018 · 296 MW · 33 23 Sept 2018 · 15 MW · 3 24 Sept 2018 · 48 MW · 11 25 Sept 2018 · 89 MW · 11 26 Sept 2018 · 64 MW · 13 27 Sept 2018 · 69 MW · 11 28 Sept 2018 · 64 MW · 13 29 Sept 2018 · 159 MW · 36 30 Sept 2018 · 274 MW · 48 1 Oct 2018 · 856 MW · 48 2 Oct 2018 · 1,079 MW · 67 3 Oct 2018 · 183 MW · 57 4 Oct 2018 · 414 MW · 55 5 Oct 2018 · 128 MW · 26 6 Oct 2018 · 551 MW · 40 7 Oct 2018 · 564 MW · 37 8 Oct 2018 · 168 MW · 16 9 Oct 2018 · 117 MW · 15 10 Oct 2018 · 29 MW · 11 11 Oct 2018 · 65 MW · 8 12 Oct 2018 · 280 MW · 21 13 Oct 2018 · 82 MW · 15 14 Oct 2018 · 13 MW · 3 15 Oct 2018 · 19 MW · 4 16 Oct 2018 · 24 MW · 5 17 Oct 2018 · 90 MW · 17 18 Oct 2018 · 47 MW · 8 19 Oct 2018 · 75 MW · 13 20 Oct 2018 · 16 MW · 6 21 Oct 2018 · 54 MW · 11 22 Oct 2018 · 52 MW · 9 24 Oct 2018 · 33 MW · 7 25 Oct 2018 · 110 MW · 16 26 Oct 2018 · 164 MW · 22 27 Oct 2018 · 360 MW · 26 28 Oct 2018 · 779 MW · 53 29 Oct 2018 · 242 MW · 31 30 Oct 2018 · 96 MW · 23 31 Oct 2018 · 386 MW · 32 1 Nov 2018 · 1,150 MW · 75 2 Nov 2018 · 579 MW · 44 3 Nov 2018 · 30 MW · 4 4 Nov 2018 · 27 MW · 4 5 Nov 2018 · 30 MW · 3 6 Nov 2018 · 152 MW · 27 7 Nov 2018 · 166 MW · 14 8 Nov 2018 · 75 MW · 12 9 Nov 2018 · 29 MW · 3 13 Nov 2018 · 18 MW · 4
17 Sept 28 Sept 9 Oct 20 Oct 1 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
53km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 16 Nov.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 25 ha in 2016, 10 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (166 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. East Arnhem where it started
    16,440 ha
    0.5 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 43 % of the area in Australia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
17 Sept 33.3 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
18 Sept 34.3 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept 33.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept 33.8 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
21 Sept 34.4 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Sept 34.5 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
23 Sept 32.2 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Sept 32.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept 32.1 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Sept 30.2 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43
27 Sept 29.5 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm High 34
28 Sept 32.5 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept 33.2 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Sept 32.5 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Oct 32.3 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Oct 33.4 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 53
3 Oct 33.2 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Oct 32.0 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Oct 32.8 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Oct 35.2 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Oct 33.9 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Oct 33.0 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Oct 33.4 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Oct 33.3 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Oct 34.0 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Oct 35.0 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Oct 33.9 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Oct 33.6 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Oct 32.7 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Oct 33.0 °C 50 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 40
17 Oct 34.0 °C 40 % 34 km/h 7.1 mm High 36
18 Oct 32.8 °C 48 % 32 km/h 1.1 mm Low 9
19 Oct 32.9 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
20 Oct 32.6 °C 47 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Oct 32.5 °C 52 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Oct 32.7 °C 54 % 35 km/h 0.8 mm High 26
23 Oct 33.2 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
24 Oct 32.7 °C 51 % 37 km/h 2.6 mm High 30
25 Oct 32.3 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 18
26 Oct 33.1 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Oct 33.5 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Oct 32.4 °C 48 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
29 Oct 32.3 °C 58 % 34 km/h 1.5 mm High 28
30 Oct 33.9 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Oct 33.1 °C 57 % 53 km/h 2.6 mm High 22
1 Nov 34.7 °C 44 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Nov 35.0 °C 45 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Nov 34.2 °C 42 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Nov 33.9 °C 51 % 39 km/h 2.2 mm High 35
5 Nov 34.3 °C 45 % 41 km/h 2.4 mm High 26
6 Nov 32.8 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 21
7 Nov 33.5 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Nov 36.2 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Nov 35.4 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
10 Nov 34.2 °C 48 % 37 km/h 1.2 mm High 33
11 Nov 34.1 °C 51 % 34 km/h 1.8 mm High 22
12 Nov 33.4 °C 52 % 35 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 20
13 Nov 32.3 °C 56 % 40 km/h 2.3 mm High 24
14 Nov after 32.0 °C 57 % 40 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 16
15 Nov after 32.5 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
16 Nov after 33.2 °C 46 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2018
After · 20 Nov 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 · 1,129Every 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 East Arnhem fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 September 2018 to 13 November 2018 (58 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 September 2018 to 6 November 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,578 hectares (165.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered East Arnhem (16,440 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 6 November 2018 → 13 November 2018.
  2. Start date: 18 September 2018 → 17 September 2018.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 September 2018 to 6 November 2018. 1,129 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
  • Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.