Isaac fire, February 2022 Isaac, Barcaldine
The fire started on 25 February 2022 in Isaac, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,507 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 1270th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 380 in Australia in 2022, of 566.
- Burnt area
- 6,507ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 25 Feb 2022 – 2 Mar 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 25 Feb
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 295
- in a single hotspot: 138 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Isaac where it started6,391 ha reached on 20 Feb0.1 %
-
156 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Feb | 34.0 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 21 Feb | 34.4 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 22 Feb | 34.4 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 23 Feb | 34.4 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Feb | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Feb | 35.3 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 26 Feb | 33.7 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 27 Feb | 35.6 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Feb | 36.3 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Mar | 38.4 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Mar | 40.2 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Mar after | 38.7 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Mar after | 38.0 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Mar after | 38.6 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Mar after | 39.1 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 8 Mar after | 37.6 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 9 Mar after | 39.2 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Mar after | 37.8 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Mar after | 34.7 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Mar after | 33.7 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Mar after | 33.3 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 295Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Isaac fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 February 2022 and 2 March 2022: 6 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 6,507 hectares (65.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Isaac (6,391 ha, 0.1 %); Barcaldine (156 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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
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.