How long did the Etheridge fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 November 2023 and 9 November 2023: 5 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 17,902 hectares (179.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Croydon (11,248 ha, 0.4 %); Etheridge (6,770 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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 · 2023-11-05 → 2023-11-09

Etheridge fire, 5 November 2023 Croydon, Etheridge

Out · last detection 9 Nov 2023, 05:03 UTC

The fire started on 5 November 2023 in Etheridge, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,902 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 356th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 316 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Burnt area: 17,902ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 5days; 5 Nov 2023 – 9 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 5 Nov; 2023
Heat detections: 475; in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start: 51; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 3.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 9 Nov 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Nov9 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

56789

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

44km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 20 Nov.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 199 ha in 2017, 120 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

Croydon

11,248 ha reached on 5 Nov

0.4 %
Etheridge where it started

6,770 ha reached on 5 Nov

0.2 %

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)
5 Nov	36.8 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
6 Nov	36.8 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
7 Nov	35.9 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
8 Nov	35.6 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
9 Nov	35.9 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
10 Nov after	34.3 °C	28 %	33 km/h	1.3 mm	High 33
11 Nov after	36.6 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 45
12 Nov after	36.4 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
13 Nov after	36.8 °C	14 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
14 Nov after	37.5 °C	13 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
15 Nov after	38.3 °C	12 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
16 Nov after	38.3 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
17 Nov after	39.8 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
18 Nov after	39.3 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.3 mm	Extreme 53
19 Nov after	35.6 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.8 mm	Very high 42
20 Nov after	35.6 °C	31 %	39 km/h	1.1 mm	High 36

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Oct 2023

After · 16 Nov 2023

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 9 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak50 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1074 µg/m³

Optical depth1.12

WHO 15

3456789101112

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 475Every 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 November 2023 and 9 November 2023: 5 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 17,902 hectares (179.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Croydon (11,248 ha, 0.4 %); Etheridge (6,770 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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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What really happened?

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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.

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