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MacDonnell fire, 21 December 2018 MacDonnell

Out · last detection 1 Jan 2019, 04:05 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2018 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,555 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 800th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 188 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
16,555ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
21 Dec 2018 – 31 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
21 Dec
2018
Heat detections
537
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Dec31 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829311

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

The weather it burned in

44°high
55km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 630 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. MacDonnell where it started
    16,496 ha reached on 21 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
21 Dec 36.5 °C 20 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Dec 33.7 °C 11 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Dec 35.2 °C 5 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
24 Dec 37.4 °C 3 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Dec 40.2 °C 4 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Dec 39.8 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 Dec 41.0 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
28 Dec 41.8 °C 8 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
29 Dec 43.7 °C 7 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
30 Dec 42.3 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
31 Dec 42.3 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
1 Jan after 41.7 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
2 Jan after 41.5 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
3 Jan after 42.7 °C 6 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
4 Jan after 42.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
5 Jan after 37.3 °C 15 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
6 Jan after 36.0 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
7 Jan after 37.0 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
8 Jan after 37.7 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
9 Jan after 38.1 °C 7 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
10 Jan after 39.2 °C 6 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
11 Jan after 41.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Dec 2018
After · 7 Jan 2019

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 · 537Every 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 21 December 2018 and 31 December 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 16,555 hectares (165.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered MacDonnell (16,496 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.7 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 75, 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.