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MacDonnell fire, 17 March 2022 MacDonnell

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2022, 04:55 UTC

The fire started on 17 March 2022 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,075 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2724th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 420 in Australia in 2022, of 566.

Burnt area
6,075ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Mar 2022 – 21 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
17 Mar
2022
Heat detections
170
in a single hotspot: 144 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
53km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 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
    6,098 ha reached on 16 Mar
    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)
16 Mar 39.8 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Mar 39.6 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
18 Mar 37.1 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
19 Mar 38.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Mar 38.3 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Mar 38.0 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Mar after 38.5 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Mar after 38.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
24 Mar after 35.7 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
25 Mar after 34.4 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
26 Mar after 35.0 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Mar after 35.4 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Mar after 36.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Mar after 36.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Mar after 36.2 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
31 Mar after 32.4 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
1 Apr after 29.0 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
2 Apr after 29.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Apr after 31.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Apr after 34.5 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Apr after 36.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
6 Apr after 32.8 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
7 Apr after 32.4 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Mar 2022
After · 28 Mar 2022

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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the MacDonnell fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 March 2022 and 21 March 2022: 5 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 6,075 hectares (60.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered MacDonnell (6,098 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, 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.