How long did the Etheridge fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 November 2024 and 27 November 2024: 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 7,815 hectares (78.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mareeba (4,124 ha, 0.1 %); Etheridge (3,730 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 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 · 2024-11-23 → 2024-11-27

Etheridge fire, 23 November 2024 Mareeba, Etheridge

Out · last detection 27 Nov 2024, 03:22 UTC

The fire started on 23 November 2024 in Etheridge, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,815 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1029th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 357 in Australia in 2024, of 638.

Burnt area: 7,815ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 5days; 23 Nov 2024 – 27 Nov 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 23 Nov; 2024
Heat detections: 257; in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start: 54; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 961MW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Nov 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Nov27 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627

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

46km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 29 Nov.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,462 ha in 2016, 1,322 ha in 2017, 1,310 ha in 2020, 2,330 ha in 2021, 1,000 ha in 2022, 100 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,632 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Mareeba

4,124 ha reached on 23 Nov

0.1 %
Etheridge where it started

3,730 ha reached on 20 Nov

0.1 %

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)
19 Nov	37.1 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
20 Nov	36.5 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Extreme 55
21 Nov	35.2 °C	32 %	43 km/h	3.5 mm	High 23
22 Nov	33.5 °C	41 %	45 km/h	0.7 mm	High 32
23 Nov	34.7 °C	35 %	46 km/h	0.2 mm	High 38
24 Nov	35.1 °C	29 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
25 Nov	36.0 °C	27 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
26 Nov	36.7 °C	20 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
27 Nov	37.8 °C	21 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
28 Nov after	36.1 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Nov after	35.2 °C	38 %	33 km/h	1.5 mm	High 24

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Nov 2024

After · 4 Dec 2024

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 30 November 2024 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak50 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1053 µg/m³

Optical depth0.70

WHO 15

21222324252627282930

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 · 257Every 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 23 November 2024 and 27 November 2024: 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 7,815 hectares (78.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mareeba (4,124 ha, 0.1 %); Etheridge (3,730 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 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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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