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MacDonnell fire, 25 September 2023 Central Desert, MacDonnell

Out · last detection 14 Oct 2023, 04:49 UTC

The fire started on 25 September 2023 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 95,818 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 62th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 38 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Burnt area
95,818ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
25 Sept 2023 – 14 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
25 Sept
2023
Heat detections
3,951
in a single hotspot: 306 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
82.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Oct 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Sept14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293012345691011121314

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
57km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,288 ha in 2017, 173 ha in 2021, 3,213 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Central Desert
    72,511 ha reached on 23 Sept
    0.3 %
  2. MacDonnell where it started
    24,438 ha reached on 25 Sept
    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)
23 Sept 31.5 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Sept 32.7 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Sept 33.2 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Sept 34.8 °C 8 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
27 Sept 33.2 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
28 Sept 32.8 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
29 Sept 32.4 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept 34.4 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Oct 35.9 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Oct 37.3 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
3 Oct 36.6 °C 11 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
4 Oct 26.5 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
5 Oct 27.7 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Oct 28.6 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
7 Oct 28.3 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
8 Oct 29.3 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Oct 30.3 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
10 Oct 31.1 °C 6 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Oct 32.9 °C 7 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Oct 35.5 °C 7 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
13 Oct 32.0 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
14 Oct 30.2 °C 5 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
15 Oct after 31.5 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
16 Oct after 31.0 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
17 Oct after 30.6 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Oct after 32.7 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Oct after 35.0 °C 5 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Oct after 36.6 °C 5 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
21 Oct after 35.3 °C 7 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
22 Oct after 35.2 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Oct after 37.3 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
24 Oct after 37.8 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Sept 2023
After · 21 Oct 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 11 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak98 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM10142 µg/m³
Optical depth1.10
23242526272829301234567891011121314151617
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 · 3,951Every 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 25 September 2023 and 14 October 2023: 20 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 95,818 hectares (958.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Central Desert (72,511 ha, 0.3 %); MacDonnell (24,438 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 77, 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.