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Isaac fire, December 2017 Isaac

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2017, 15:36 UTC

The fire started on 17 December 2017 in Isaac, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,287 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 960th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 451 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area
8,287ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
17 Dec 2017 – 27 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
17 Dec
2017
Heat detections
344
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Dec27 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
45km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 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

  1. Isaac where it started
    8,311 ha reached on 17 Dec
    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)
11 Dec 29.1 °C 53 % 36 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 3
12 Dec 27.6 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
13 Dec 30.5 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
14 Dec 30.3 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
15 Dec 30.6 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
16 Dec 30.2 °C 45 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
17 Dec 30.3 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
18 Dec 30.3 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
19 Dec 31.4 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
20 Dec 32.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Dec 32.3 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
22 Dec 31.6 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Dec 32.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Dec 32.8 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Dec 34.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Dec 33.6 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Dec 33.3 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Dec after 32.6 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
29 Dec after 31.7 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Dec after 36.0 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Dec after 37.6 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Jan after 38.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
2 Jan after 37.9 °C 31 % 48 km/h 3.5 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Dec 2017
After · 3 Jan 2018

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 · 344Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Isaac fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 December 2017 and 27 December 2017: 11 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 8,287 hectares (82.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Isaac (8,311 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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

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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

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.