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MacDonnell fire, February 2023 MacDonnell

Out · last detection 22 Feb 2023, 04:37 UTC

The fire started on 4 February 2023 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,971 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 333th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 160 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Burnt area
31,971ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
4 Feb 2023 – 22 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
4 Feb
2023
Heat detections
1,500
in a single hotspot: 138 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
23.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Feb 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Feb22 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415161718192022

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
59km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 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
    32,433 ha reached on 4 Feb
    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)
4 Feb 28.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Feb 31.9 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Feb 34.5 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Feb 37.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Feb 39.8 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Feb 40.9 °C 7 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Feb 39.0 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Feb 40.6 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Feb 40.1 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Feb 36.3 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Feb 37.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Feb 39.8 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Feb 40.3 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Feb 39.3 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Feb 38.1 °C 18 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
19 Feb 37.4 °C 21 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Feb 38.5 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Feb 40.3 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Feb 38.3 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Feb after 38.5 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Feb after 37.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Feb after 28.8 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
26 Feb after 34.3 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Feb after 36.9 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Feb after 37.5 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Mar after 34.8 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
2 Mar after 34.3 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Mar after 34.4 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Mar after 35.9 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jan 2023
After · 1 Mar 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 7 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak64 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1094 µg/m³
Optical depth0.43
2345678910111213141516171819202122232425
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,500Every 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 4 February 2023 and 22 February 2023: 19 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 31,971 hectares (319.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered MacDonnell (32,433 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class 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.