Burned area
satellite only6,504ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 3 Dec 2017 – 19 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
AU · Australia · –
Kalgoorlie-Boulder fire, 3 December 2017 Kalgoorlie-Boulder
Out · last detection 19 Dec 2017, 16:49 UTC
The fire started on 3 December 2017 in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,504 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 312th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 427 with a page). Number 81 in Australia in 2017, of 116.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only17days
3 Dec 2017 to 19 Dec 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 19 Dec 2017, 16:49 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only3 Dec 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 3 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only326
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 131 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 3 Dec 2017 – 19 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,604MW
Total radiative power on 8 December 2017; hotspots that day: 96.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model43.2FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 3 Dec 2017, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model41.8°C · 6% RH
High of 41.8 °C and minimum humidity of 6% on 16 December 2017; gusts of 87 km/h on 18 December 2017.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 3 Dec 2017 – 19 Dec 2017
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 13 December 2017 → 19 December 2017.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 6,504 ha
- Dates
- 3 Dec 2017 – 19 Dec 2017
- Name
- Kalgoorlie-Boulder
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/kalgoorlie-boulder-2017-12?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire kalgoorlie-boulder-2017-12.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-12-03 | 6 | 99 | 26.7 | 12.1 | 20 | 22.4 | 43.2 | 0 | 43.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-04 | 4 | 185 | 28.9 | 16.4 | 15 | 23.8 | 39.2 | 0 | 47.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-05 | 64 | 339 | 33.7 | 18.3 | 18 | 29.8 | 48.2 | 0.3 | 50 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-06 | 18 | 84 | 27.8 | 15.6 | 27 | 27.7 | 50 | 0 | 52.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-07 | 35 | 299 | 25.5 | 12.3 | 20 | 27.6 | 48.2 | 0 | 48.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-08 | 96 | 1,604 | 28.5 | 11.2 | 14 | 20.7 | 40 | 0 | 45.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-09 | 21 | 293 | 32.6 | 16.1 | 11 | 22.2 | 42.5 | 0 | 56.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-10 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 22.1 | 13 | 21.4 | 37.4 | 0 | 54.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-11 | 41 | 1,142 | 35.6 | 22.7 | 23 | 18.2 | 41.8 | 0 | 47 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-12 | 15 | 307 | 36.7 | 23.2 | 16 | 33.5 | 60.5 | 0 | 93.5 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-13 | 7 | 80 | 31.4 | 18.4 | 25 | 24.2 | 42.8 | 0 | 46.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-14 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 14.1 | 22 | 22.6 | 38.5 | 0 | 34.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-15 | 1 | 3 | 35.1 | 17.3 | 15 | 23.7 | 46.4 | 0 | 45.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-16 | 10 | 254 | 41.8 | 22.8 | 6 | 39.8 | 72 | 0 | 137.6 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-17 | 6 | 60 | 32.9 | 21.1 | 12 | 32 | 61.6 | 0 | 110.1 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-18 | 0 | 0 | 23.7 | 16.4 | 21 | 50.8 | 87.1 | 0.3 | 111.2 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-19 | 2 | 3 | 22.5 | 16.4 | 37 | 29 | 52.2 | 0 | 53.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-20 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 13.3 | 18 | 16.3 | 32.4 | 0 | 41.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-12-21 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 | 14.6 | 12 | 19.6 | 36 | 0 | 53.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-22 | 0 | 0 | 40.5 | 21 | 9 | 31.2 | 52.9 | 0 | 72.6 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-23 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 15.6 | 38 | 27.7 | 51.8 | 0.1 | 56.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-24 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 | 13.4 | 23 | 25 | 44.3 | 0.2 | 55.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-25 | 0 | 0 | 38.8 | 17 | 18 | 24.2 | 48.2 | 0.4 | 70.6 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-26 | 0 | 0 | 39.6 | 25.5 | 11 | 36.7 | 64.8 | 0 | 119.4 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-27 | 0 | 0 | 36.3 | 18.1 | 19 | 36.4 | 54.4 | 0 | 60.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-28 | 0 | 0 | 22.6 | 15.6 | 58 | 29.3 | 56.5 | 0.1 | 44.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-12-29 | 0 | 0 | 27.5 | 15.3 | 33 | 21.8 | 38.2 | 0.2 | 38.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 6,504ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 3 Dec 2017 – 19 Dec 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 3 Dec
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 326
- in a single hotspot: 131 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 339MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
3 Dec19 Dec
19 Dec 2017
How it evolved, day by day
3 Dec
8 Dec
13 Dec
17 Dec
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
87km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Kalgoorlie-Boulder where it started6,525 ha reached on 3 Dec0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Dec | 26.7 °C | 20 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Dec | 28.9 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 5 Dec | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Dec | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Dec | 25.5 °C | 20 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Dec | 28.5 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Dec | 32.6 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 10 Dec | 35.1 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Dec | 35.6 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Dec | 36.7 °C | 16 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 94 |
| 13 Dec | 31.4 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Dec | 29.3 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Dec | 35.1 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Dec | 41.8 °C | 6 % | 72 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 138 |
| 17 Dec | 32.9 °C | 12 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 110 |
| 18 Dec | 23.7 °C | 21 % | 87 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very extreme 111 |
| 19 Dec | 22.5 °C | 37 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 20 Dec after | 28.4 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Dec after | 33.5 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 22 Dec after | 40.5 °C | 9 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 23 Dec after | 26.0 °C | 38 % | 52 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 24 Dec after | 30.5 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Dec after | 38.8 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 26 Dec after | 39.6 °C | 11 % | 65 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 119 |
| 27 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 28 Dec after | 22.6 °C | 58 % | 56 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Dec after | 27.5 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 38 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 43.2, a minimum humidity of 20% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 12.
FWI at the start
43.2
Minimum humidity
20 %
Days without rain
2
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Kalgoorlie-Boulder fire, 3 December 2017
6,504 ha
17 days
FWI 43.2
Min. humidity 20 %
Dundas fire, October 2019
161,625 ha
36 days
FWI 45.9
Min. humidity 20 %
99 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Dundas fire, December 2023
5,602 ha
2 days
FWI 37.5
Min. humidity 21 %
166 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.8 mm on 7 Dec.
Dundas fire, November 2023
7,349 ha
9 days
FWI 47.8
Min. humidity 24 %
129 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 6.7 mm on 15 Nov.
Kalgoorlie-Boulder fire, December 2019
5,936 ha
7 days
FWI 26.8
Min. humidity 19 %
39 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.0 mm on 26 Dec.
Coolgardie fire, December 2019
13,999 ha
12 days
FWI 32.0
Min. humidity 23 %
188 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 20.6 mm on 14 Jan.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 12. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
87km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 19 Dec, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 26 Nov 2017
After · 26 Dec 2017
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 326Every 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
- 18,591 haKalgoorlie-BoulderNovember 2019 · 11 days · 9 km away
- 14,284 haKalgoorlie-Boulder2 January 2019 · 15 days · 15 km away
- 6,215 haKalgoorlie-Boulder28 November 2017 · 6 days · 15 km away
- 11,399 haKalgoorlie-Boulder1 January 2019 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 5,936 haKalgoorlie-Boulder17 December 2019 · 7 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kalgoorlie-Boulder fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 December 2017 to 19 December 2017 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 December 2017 to 13 December 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,504 hectares (65.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kalgoorlie-Boulder (6,525 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 87 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 138, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 13 December 2017 → 19 December 2017.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 December 2017 to 13 December 2017. 326 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.