How long did the Lithgow fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 December 2019 and 4 January 2020: 32 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 22,878 hectares (228.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mid-Western (14,355 ha, 1.6 %); Lithgow (8,630 ha, 1.9 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class 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.

AU · Australia · 2019-12-04 → 2020-01-04

Lithgow fire, December 2019 Mid-Western, Lithgow

Out · last detection 4 Jan 2020, 04:01 UTC

The fire started on 4 December 2019 in Lithgow, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,878 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 36th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 143 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Burnt area: 22,878ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 32days; 4 Dec 2019 – 4 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 4 Dec; 2019
Heat detections: 2,670; in a single hotspot: 327 MW
Danger at start: 30; High · FWI index
Energy released: 26.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 4 Jan 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Dec4 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234

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

68km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 6 Jan.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15 ha in 2016, 39 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

Mid-Western

14,355 ha reached on 10 Dec

1.6 %
Lithgow where it started

8,630 ha reached on 4 Dec

1.9 %

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)
4 Dec	23.7 °C	17 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
5 Dec	27.2 °C	14 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
6 Dec	26.0 °C	14 %	68 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Dec	25.9 °C	11 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
8 Dec	27.7 °C	24 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Dec	30.6 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
10 Dec	34.4 °C	10 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
11 Dec	31.7 °C	15 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Dec	28.6 °C	15 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
13 Dec	25.9 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
14 Dec	27.1 °C	23 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
15 Dec	28.5 °C	18 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
16 Dec	29.9 °C	15 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Dec	27.6 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
18 Dec	31.5 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
19 Dec	34.4 °C	10 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
20 Dec	34.9 °C	16 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Dec	37.2 °C	11 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
22 Dec	24.3 °C	35 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Dec	27.8 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.2 mm	High 31
24 Dec	27.6 °C	30 %	50 km/h	0.2 mm	High 36
25 Dec	26.4 °C	32 %	41 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
26 Dec	29.8 °C	23 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Dec	32.4 °C	19 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
28 Dec	34.1 °C	8 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
29 Dec	34.3 °C	9 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
30 Dec	35.1 °C	9 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
31 Dec	34.9 °C	11 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Jan	34.6 °C	17 %	51 km/h	3.9 mm	High 24
2 Jan	32.0 °C	26 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
3 Jan	34.8 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
4 Jan	38.0 °C	13 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
5 Jan after	32.8 °C	22 %	67 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
6 Jan after	24.5 °C	47 %	56 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Nov 2019

After · 11 Jan 2020

Before After

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 · 2,670Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lithgow fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 December 2019 and 4 January 2020: 32 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 22,878 hectares (228.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mid-Western (14,355 ha, 1.6 %); Lithgow (8,630 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned