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Lismore fire, November 2019 Lismore, Byron, Tweed

Out · last detection 19 Nov 2019, 14:41 UTC

The fire started on 8 November 2019 in Lismore, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,873 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 63th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 424 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Burnt area
8,873ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
8 Nov 2019 – 19 Nov 2019
Municipalities hit
3
local government areas
Started on
8 Nov
2019
Heat detections
446
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Nov 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Nov19 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
52km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 29 Nov.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Lismore where it started
    4,061 ha reached on 8 Nov
    3.1 %
  2. Byron
    3,216 ha reached on 9 Nov
    5.6 %
  3. Tweed
    1,621 ha reached on 8 Nov
    1.2 %

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)
8 Nov 30.3 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Nov 21.1 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Nov 23.6 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Nov 22.7 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
12 Nov 27.5 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Nov 22.3 °C 44 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 18
14 Nov 24.0 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Nov 27.3 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Nov 29.3 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Nov 26.7 °C 36 % 41 km/h 6.9 mm Very low 3
18 Nov 22.5 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm Low 9
19 Nov 27.1 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
20 Nov after 28.6 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 16
21 Nov after 25.1 °C 44 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Nov after 25.5 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Nov after 25.5 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Nov after 25.5 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Nov after 25.0 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Nov after 26.3 °C 41 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
27 Nov after 24.5 °C 40 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Nov after 25.9 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Nov after 27.2 °C 47 % 41 km/h 1.5 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Nov 2019
After · 26 Nov 2019

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 · 446Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lismore fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 November 2019 and 19 November 2019: 12 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 8,873 hectares (88.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Lismore (4,061 ha, 3.1 %); Byron (3,216 ha, 5.6 %); Tweed (1,621 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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
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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.