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MacDonnell fire, 14 October 2018 MacDonnell, East Pilbara

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2018, 05:33 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2018 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,296 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3239th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 865 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
5,296ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Oct 2018 – 19 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
14 Oct
2018
Heat detections
170
in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start
85
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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
60km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 26 Oct.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 126 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. MacDonnell where it started
    5,230 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.0 %
  2. East Pilbara
    45 ha reached on 16 Oct
    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)
14 Oct 37.8 °C 10 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
15 Oct 31.7 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
16 Oct 30.7 °C 13 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
17 Oct 33.8 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Oct 34.8 °C 21 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
19 Oct 37.5 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
20 Oct after 34.2 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
21 Oct after 37.3 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Oct after 39.3 °C 5 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Oct after 40.1 °C 6 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
24 Oct after 40.8 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
25 Oct after 40.3 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
26 Oct after 32.7 °C 24 % 48 km/h 2.1 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Oct 2018
After · 26 Oct 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 · 170Every 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 MacDonnell fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2018 and 19 October 2018: 6 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 5,296 hectares (53.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: MacDonnell (5,230 ha, 0.0 %); East Pilbara (45 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 85, 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
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.

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.