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Katherine fire, 25 August 2018 Katherine, Victoria Daly

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2018, 16:37 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2018 in Katherine, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,402 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2551th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 683 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
6,402ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
25 Aug 2018 – 26 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
25 Aug
2018
Heat detections
356
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

252627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
28km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Katherine where it started
    6,099 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.8 %
  2. Victoria Daly
    338 ha reached on 25 Aug
    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)
25 Aug 33.2 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 33.3 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug after 31.8 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug after 32.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug after 33.4 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Aug after 32.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Aug after 32.7 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Sept after 34.9 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Sept after 35.2 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept after 36.6 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Sept after 35.2 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept after 34.8 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept after 35.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Sept after 35.3 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2018
After · 2 Sept 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 · 356Every 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 25 August 2018 and 26 August 2018: 2 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 6,402 hectares (64.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Katherine (6,099 ha, 0.8 %); Victoria Daly (338 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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
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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.