MacDonnell fire, 31 July 2022 MacDonnell
The fire started on 31 July 2022 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,864 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2853th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 444 in Australia in 2022, of 566.
We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 5,864ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 31 Jul 2022 – 1 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 31 Jul
- 2022
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 4 Aug.
This area had burned before
32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,417 ha in 2017, 295 ha in 2018, 194 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
MacDonnell where it started5,885 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jul | 22.2 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Aug | 25.6 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Aug after | 29.0 °C | 12 % | 77 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very extreme 94 |
| 3 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 30 % | 69 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 4 Aug after | 22.5 °C | 30 % | 51 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 25 |
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.
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the MacDonnell fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 July 2022 and 1 August 2022: 2 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 5,864 hectares (58.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered MacDonnell (5,885 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 25.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- 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.