How long did the Etheridge fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 November 2020 and 28 November 2020: 15 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 26,879 hectares (268.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Etheridge (11,918 ha, 0.3 %); Croydon (11,762 ha, 0.4 %); Carpentaria (3,223 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 42.1 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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 · 2020-11-14 → 2020-11-28

Etheridge fire, 14 November 2020 Etheridge, Croydon, Carpentaria

Out · last detection 29 Nov 2020, 15:28 UTC

The fire started on 14 November 2020 in Etheridge, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,879 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 211th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 24 in Australia in 2020, of 320.

Burnt area: 26,879ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 14 Nov 2020 – 28 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit: 3; local government areas
Started on: 14 Nov; 2020
Heat detections: 1,438; in a single hotspot: 154 MW
Danger at start: 59; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 19.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 Nov 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Nov28 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

42°high

53km/h · peak gust

3%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 9 Dec.

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,941 ha in 2016, 2,898 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,947 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Etheridge where it started

11,918 ha reached on 14 Nov

0.3 %
Croydon

11,762 ha reached on 17 Nov

0.4 %
Carpentaria

3,223 ha reached on 21 Nov

0.0 %

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)
7 Nov	42.1 °C	3 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
8 Nov	40.0 °C	5 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
9 Nov	38.8 °C	19 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
10 Nov	38.6 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
11 Nov	38.7 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
12 Nov	37.4 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.8 mm	Very high 38
13 Nov	37.0 °C	38 %	40 km/h	2.8 mm	High 22
14 Nov	38.6 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	High 28
15 Nov	40.3 °C	27 %	25 km/h	0.4 mm	High 37
16 Nov	40.9 °C	12 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
17 Nov	41.1 °C	12 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
18 Nov	39.7 °C	10 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
19 Nov	38.9 °C	14 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
20 Nov	38.6 °C	14 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 69
21 Nov	39.3 °C	13 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
22 Nov	39.1 °C	16 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 68
23 Nov	39.7 °C	14 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
24 Nov	40.5 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
25 Nov	37.3 °C	26 %	45 km/h	6.7 mm	High 22
26 Nov	38.5 °C	29 %	33 km/h	2.6 mm	Moderate 21
27 Nov	37.1 °C	26 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Nov	38.0 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Nov after	38.7 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
30 Nov after	39.8 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
1 Dec after	41.0 °C	27 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Dec after	41.2 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
3 Dec after	41.6 °C	15 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
4 Dec after	40.0 °C	15 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
5 Dec after	40.0 °C	16 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
6 Dec after	41.3 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
7 Dec after	41.4 °C	24 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
8 Dec after	41.5 °C	14 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
9 Dec after	39.9 °C	26 %	41 km/h	2.4 mm	High 36

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Nov 2020

After · 5 Dec 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 · 1,438Every 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 14 November 2020 and 28 November 2020: 15 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 26,879 hectares (268.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Etheridge (11,918 ha, 0.3 %); Croydon (11,762 ha, 0.4 %); Carpentaria (3,223 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 42.1 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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 ↗

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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