How long did the Etheridge fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 December 2017 and 22 December 2017: 17 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 15,119 hectares (151.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Etheridge (15,220 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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 · 2017-12-06 → 2017-12-22

Etheridge fire, 6 December 2017 Etheridge

Out · last detection 23 Dec 2017, 15:29 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2017 in Etheridge, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,119 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 448th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 180 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area: 15,119ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 6 Dec 2017 – 22 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; local government areas
Started on: 6 Dec; 2017
Heat detections: 1,003; in a single hotspot: 122 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 6.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Dec 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec22 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

50km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 22.0 mm on 2 Jan.

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

15,220 ha reached on 1 Dec

0.4 %

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	33.4 °C	32 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
30 Nov	32.9 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 16
1 Dec	33.0 °C	35 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
2 Dec	33.4 °C	39 %	29 km/h	3.4 mm	Low 6
3 Dec	31.4 °C	50 %	24 km/h	3.5 mm	Very low 2
4 Dec	33.7 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
5 Dec	32.3 °C	15 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Dec	35.5 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
7 Dec	37.1 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
8 Dec	36.5 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
9 Dec	35.9 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
10 Dec	35.3 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
11 Dec	33.8 °C	26 %	42 km/h	0.1 mm	High 33
12 Dec	33.5 °C	22 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
13 Dec	32.9 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
14 Dec	34.8 °C	13 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
15 Dec	35.2 °C	19 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
16 Dec	35.2 °C	20 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
17 Dec	34.9 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
18 Dec	35.2 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
19 Dec	34.9 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Dec	34.9 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Dec	34.5 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Dec	34.2 °C	19 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Dec after	33.9 °C	23 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Dec after	34.8 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
25 Dec after	36.0 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Dec after	36.0 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
27 Dec after	35.6 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
28 Dec after	35.3 °C	25 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Dec after	34.9 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
30 Dec after	37.0 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
31 Dec after	38.3 °C	20 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
1 Jan after	36.0 °C	27 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Jan after	37.4 °C	30 %	41 km/h	22.0 mm	Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Nov 2017

After · 29 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 · 1,003Every 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 6 December 2017 and 22 December 2017: 17 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 15,119 hectares (151.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Etheridge (15,220 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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