MacDonnell fire, September 2026 MacDonnell
The fire started on 19 September 2026 in MacDonnell, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,215 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2644th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 629 in Australia in 2026, of 859.
- Burnt area
- 6,215ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 19 Sept 2026 – 30 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 19 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 225
- in a single hotspot: 35 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 102 ha in 2022, 417 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 424 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
MacDonnell where it started6,205 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Sept | 31.4 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Sept | 32.9 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Sept | 32.3 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Sept | 31.1 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 23 Sept | 32.1 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 24 Sept | 33.7 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 25 Sept | 31.5 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 26 Sept | 30.9 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 27 Sept | 31.2 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Sept | 32.3 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 29 Sept | 33.3 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Sept | 34.3 °C | 14 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 1 Oct after | 33.7 °C | 20 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 2 Oct after | 27.9 °C | 44 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Oct after | 30.8 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Oct after | 27.5 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 39 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 225Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the MacDonnell fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 September 2026 and 30 September 2026: 12 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 6,215 hectares (62.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered MacDonnell (6,205 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the MacDonnell fire still active?
- No fire detections since 30 Sept 2026, 05:14 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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
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.