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Katherine fire, 14 November 2016 Katherine, Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 20 Nov 2016, 16:32 UTC

The fire started on 14 November 2016 in Katherine, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,877 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 506th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 51 in Australia in 2016, of 427.

Burnt area
22,877ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Nov 2016 – 20 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
14 Nov
2016
Heat detections
778
in a single hotspot: 186 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Nov20 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

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
42km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 23 Nov.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Katherine where it started
    16,015 ha reached on 14 Nov
    2.2 %
  2. Roper Gulf
    7,021 ha reached on 14 Nov
    0.0 %

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)
14 Nov 33.2 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
15 Nov 36.0 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Nov 37.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Nov 38.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Nov 37.1 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Nov 36.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Nov 36.0 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.7 mm High 30
21 Nov after 35.8 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Nov after 34.9 °C 42 % 29 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 18
23 Nov after 33.4 °C 47 % 24 km/h 3.1 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Nov 2016
After · 27 Nov 2016

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 · 778Every 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 Katherine fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 November 2016 and 20 November 2016: 7 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 22,877 hectares (228.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Katherine (16,015 ha, 2.2 %); Roper Gulf (7,021 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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
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.