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Lockhart River fire, 21 September 2018 Lockhart River

Out · last detection 2 Nov 2018, 04:33 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2018 in Lockhart River, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,045 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 509th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1743 with a page). Number 232 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cook · 2016Lockhart River · 2018Lockhart River · 2019Cook · 2018

Burnt area
14,045ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
43days
21 Sept 2018 – 2 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
21 Sept
2018
Heat detections
672
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
123MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept2 Nov
2 Nov 2018

How it evolved, day by day

21 Sept 2018 · 2 MW · 1 22 Sept 2018 · 37 MW · 11 23 Sept 2018 · 19 MW · 3 24 Sept 2018 · 10 MW · 6 25 Sept 2018 · 8 MW · 6 26 Sept 2018 · 109 MW · 10 27 Sept 2018 · 26 MW · 6 28 Sept 2018 · 108 MW · 10 29 Sept 2018 · 10 MW · 1 1 Oct 2018 · 4 MW · 5 2 Oct 2018 · 38 MW · 7 3 Oct 2018 · 30 MW · 4 4 Oct 2018 · 54 MW · 11 5 Oct 2018 · 15 MW · 7 6 Oct 2018 · 14 MW · 5 7 Oct 2018 · 9 MW · 2 8 Oct 2018 · 33 MW · 9 9 Oct 2018 · 136 MW · 9 10 Oct 2018 · 71 MW · 11 11 Oct 2018 · 63 MW · 11 12 Oct 2018 · 833 MW · 86 13 Oct 2018 · 220 MW · 42 14 Oct 2018 · 424 MW · 30 15 Oct 2018 · 436 MW · 61 16 Oct 2018 · 189 MW · 40 17 Oct 2018 · 591 MW · 69 18 Oct 2018 · 299 MW · 49 19 Oct 2018 · 417 MW · 53 20 Oct 2018 · 89 MW · 14 21 Oct 2018 · 72 MW · 14 22 Oct 2018 · 40 MW · 15 23 Oct 2018 · 51 MW · 17 24 Oct 2018 · 57 MW · 10 25 Oct 2018 · 56 MW · 7 27 Oct 2018 · 28 MW · 9 28 Oct 2018 · 59 MW · 9 29 Oct 2018 · 147 MW · 10 1 Nov 2018 · 3 MW · 1 2 Nov 2018 · 11 MW · 1
21 Sept 27 Sept 4 Oct 10 Oct 12 Oct 16 Oct 22 Oct 29 Oct

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
71km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 265 ha in 2016, 53 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.9% of the area of London (140 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Lockhart River where it started
    14,121 ha reached on 21 Sept
    3.9 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)
21 Sept 28.7 °C 47 % 51 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
22 Sept 28.4 °C 48 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept 28.2 °C 44 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Sept 27.6 °C 44 % 54 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
25 Sept 28.3 °C 43 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Sept 28.8 °C 44 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Sept 29.3 °C 37 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Sept 28.1 °C 34 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Sept 28.5 °C 35 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept 28.7 °C 41 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Oct 28.2 °C 48 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Oct 28.9 °C 44 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Oct 28.4 °C 47 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Oct 29.6 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Oct 30.8 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Oct 31.1 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Oct 30.3 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Oct 29.5 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Oct 29.2 °C 44 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Oct 30.6 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Oct 30.0 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Oct 31.7 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Oct 32.4 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
14 Oct 30.6 °C 55 % 43 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 15
15 Oct 30.8 °C 49 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
16 Oct 30.9 °C 48 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Oct 31.4 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Oct 31.6 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Oct 31.4 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Oct 31.3 °C 46 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Oct 32.9 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Oct 32.9 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Oct 31.6 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Oct 31.3 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Oct 30.7 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Oct 30.0 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Oct 31.6 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Oct 31.8 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
29 Oct 32.5 °C 49 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Oct 30.1 °C 60 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm High 22
31 Oct 30.7 °C 43 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Nov 30.7 °C 48 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Nov 31.5 °C 48 % 64 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
3 Nov after 31.1 °C 51 % 58 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
4 Nov after 31.1 °C 54 % 57 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
5 Nov after 31.5 °C 48 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
6 Nov after 31.7 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Nov after 31.6 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Nov after 31.9 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Nov after 32.7 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
10 Nov after 31.4 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Nov after 31.2 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Nov after 31.2 °C 48 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Sept 2018
After · 9 Nov 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 · 672Every 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 Lockhart River fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 September 2018 to 2 November 2018 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 September 2018 to 29 October 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,045 hectares (140.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lockhart River (14,121 ha, 3.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 29 October 2018 → 2 November 2018.
  2. Start date: 26 September 2018 → 21 September 2018.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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 26 September 2018 to 29 October 2018. 672 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.