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MacDonnell fire, 26 March 2018 MacDonnell, Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yunkunytjatjara

Out · last detection 6 Apr 2018, 05:07 UTC

The fire started on 26 March 2018 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,367 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 562th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 129 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
21,367ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
26 Mar 2018 – 5 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
26 Mar
2018
Heat detections
767
in a single hotspot: 199 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
8.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Mar5 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031123456

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
43km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. MacDonnell where it started
    21,634 ha reached on 25 Mar
    0.1 %
  2. Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yunkunytjatjara
    80 ha reached on 3 Apr
    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 Mar 33.9 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Mar 28.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Mar 33.0 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Mar 35.4 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
29 Mar 35.2 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
30 Mar 33.1 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
31 Mar 34.0 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Apr 35.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Apr 34.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Apr 31.2 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
4 Apr 31.1 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Apr 31.9 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Apr after 32.0 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
7 Apr after 32.7 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Apr after 33.9 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Apr after 34.0 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Apr after 33.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Apr after 32.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Apr after 30.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Apr after 32.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Apr after 27.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Apr after 28.0 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Apr after 30.3 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Mar 2018
After · 12 Apr 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 · 767Every 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 MacDonnell fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 March 2018 and 5 April 2018: 11 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 21,367 hectares (213.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: MacDonnell (21,634 ha, 0.1 %); Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yunkunytjatjara (80 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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

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.