MacDonnell fire, 13 October 2018 MacDonnell
The fire started on 13 October 2018 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,012 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 411th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 82 in Australia in 2018, of 923.
- Burnt area
- 27,012ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 13 Oct 2018 – 25 Oct 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 898
- in a single hotspot: 331 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 14.0GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.4 mm on 26 Oct.
This area had burned before
3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 803 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
MacDonnell where it started27,122 ha reached on 13 Oct0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 36.3 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Oct | 37.8 °C | 9 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 97 |
| 15 Oct | 30.4 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 16 Oct | 27.9 °C | 14 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 17 Oct | 31.7 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 18 Oct | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 19 Oct | 37.3 °C | 9 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 83 |
| 20 Oct | 31.2 °C | 15 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 21 Oct | 35.4 °C | 8 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 22 Oct | 38.1 °C | 5 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Oct | 38.1 °C | 9 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 91 |
| 24 Oct | 39.5 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 25 Oct | 37.8 °C | 17 % | 54 km/h | 1.3 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 26 Oct after | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 55 km/h | 5.4 mm | High 27 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 898Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the MacDonnell fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2018 and 25 October 2018: 13 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 27,012 hectares (270.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered MacDonnell (27,122 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 97, class Very 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
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.