How long did the Etheridge fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 December 2019 and 8 January 2020: 25 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 29,132 hectares (291.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Etheridge (29,354 ha, 0.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

AU · Australia · 2019-12-15 → 2020-01-08

Etheridge fire, 15 December 2019 Etheridge

Out · last detection 8 Jan 2020, 04:30 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2019 in Etheridge, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 187th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 103 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Burnt area: 29,132ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 25days; 15 Dec 2019 – 8 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; local government areas
Started on: 15 Dec; 2019
Heat detections: 1,837; in a single hotspot: 1,037 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 16.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Jan 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec8 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324262829303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

39°high

52km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 20 Jan.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,834 ha in 2016, 187 ha in 2017.

12,834 ha Etheridge fire, December 2016 15,437 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Etheridge where it started

29,354 ha reached on 15 Dec

0.8 %

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)
15 Dec	38.6 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
16 Dec	37.6 °C	23 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
17 Dec	38.9 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
18 Dec	37.3 °C	23 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
19 Dec	36.0 °C	19 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
20 Dec	36.9 °C	14 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
21 Dec	36.2 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
22 Dec	37.0 °C	14 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
23 Dec	37.7 °C	15 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
24 Dec	39.3 °C	12 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
25 Dec	38.1 °C	22 %	31 km/h	2.2 mm	High 27
26 Dec	37.2 °C	28 %	52 km/h	3.4 mm	High 25
27 Dec	33.4 °C	29 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	High 33
28 Dec	34.9 °C	28 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Dec	35.6 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
30 Dec	36.4 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
31 Dec	36.4 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Jan	35.6 °C	26 %	29 km/h	10.6 mm	Low 11
2 Jan	37.8 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
3 Jan	36.5 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
4 Jan	34.8 °C	29 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
5 Jan	36.9 °C	17 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
6 Jan	36.1 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
7 Jan	34.7 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
8 Jan	35.4 °C	30 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
9 Jan after	37.1 °C	21 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
10 Jan after	37.0 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
11 Jan after	36.7 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
12 Jan after	35.2 °C	30 %	49 km/h	1.3 mm	High 28
13 Jan after	34.8 °C	32 %	33 km/h	2.4 mm	Moderate 18
14 Jan after	36.9 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
15 Jan after	35.6 °C	33 %	27 km/h	1.1 mm	High 23
16 Jan after	35.6 °C	31 %	38 km/h	0.5 mm	High 30
17 Jan after	36.2 °C	22 %	50 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 45
18 Jan after	38.0 °C	13 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
19 Jan after	38.7 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
20 Jan after	35.0 °C	35 %	41 km/h	1.9 mm	High 26

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Dec 2019

After · 15 Jan 2020

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 · 1,837Every 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 15 December 2019 and 8 January 2020: 25 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 29,132 hectares (291.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Etheridge (29,354 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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

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