How long did the Etheridge fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 December 2017 and 16 December 2017: 12 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 12,284 hectares (122.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Etheridge (12,410 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.

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.

AU · Australia · 2017-12-05 → 2017-12-16

Etheridge fire, 5 December 2017 Etheridge

Out · last detection 17 Dec 2017, 04:31 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2017 in Etheridge, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,284 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 596th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 247 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area: 12,284ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 12days; 5 Dec 2017 – 16 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; local government areas
Started on: 5 Dec; 2017
Heat detections: 577; in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start: 12; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 3.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Dec 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec16 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

46km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Etheridge where it started

12,410 ha reached on 5 Dec

0.3 %

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)
29 Nov	31.2 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
30 Nov	28.7 °C	50 %	31 km/h	1.0 mm	Low 7
1 Dec	30.5 °C	41 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 11
2 Dec	29.2 °C	55 %	32 km/h	9.8 mm	Very low 1
3 Dec	28.9 °C	58 %	26 km/h	6.5 mm	Very low 0
4 Dec	30.4 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
5 Dec	29.6 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
6 Dec	32.0 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
7 Dec	33.8 °C	23 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
8 Dec	34.6 °C	21 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
9 Dec	33.3 °C	27 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
10 Dec	32.9 °C	25 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
11 Dec	31.6 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
12 Dec	30.7 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
13 Dec	31.2 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
14 Dec	33.2 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
15 Dec	34.5 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
16 Dec	34.0 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
17 Dec after	33.2 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
18 Dec after	33.7 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
19 Dec after	34.5 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
20 Dec after	32.7 °C	32 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Dec after	32.9 °C	27 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
22 Dec after	32.4 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
23 Dec after	31.1 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
24 Dec after	33.5 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
25 Dec after	34.4 °C	18 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
26 Dec after	34.9 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
27 Dec after	34.3 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
28 Dec after	33.8 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.9 mm	High 24
29 Dec after	33.4 °C	29 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
30 Dec after	36.0 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
31 Dec after	35.4 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
1 Jan after	33.2 °C	36 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 28 Nov 2017

After · 23 Dec 2017

Before After

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 · 577Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Etheridge fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 December 2017 and 16 December 2017: 12 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 12,284 hectares (122.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Etheridge (12,410 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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.

Where it burned