Mackay fire, October 2021 Whitsunday, Mackay
The fire started on 24 October 2021 in Mackay, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,014 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 1400th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 352 in Australia in 2021, of 460.
The power measured by the satellite is low (14.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 6,014ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 24 Oct 2021 – 7 Nov 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 24 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 256
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 8 Nov.
This area had burned before
36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 119 ha in 2016, 2,053 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
3,863 ha reached on 28 Oct0.2 %
-
Mackay where it started2,179 ha reached on 24 Oct0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | 31.3 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Oct | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Oct | 29.7 °C | 49 % | 35 km/h | 2.7 mm | Very low 4 |
| 27 Oct | 30.8 °C | 44 % | 33 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 28 Oct | 31.4 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Oct | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Oct | 32.4 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 31 Oct | 33.8 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Nov | 27.4 °C | 60 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Nov | 28.7 °C | 45 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 3 Nov | 26.8 °C | 50 % | 47 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 4 Nov | 27.3 °C | 51 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Nov | 29.2 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Nov | 29.4 °C | 50 % | 40 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 7 Nov | 30.3 °C | 44 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Nov after | 30.9 °C | 51 % | 40 km/h | 3.8 mm | Low 5 |
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.
Detections table · 256Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,287 haWhitsundayOctober 2022 · 16 days · 11 km away
- 32,527 haMackay4 November 2024 · 16 days · 13 km away
- 8,241 haMackayJanuary 2017 · 10 days · 16 km away
- 9,350 haWhitsunday2 December 2023 · 9 days · 18 km away
- 9,477 haMackayOctober 2017 · 8 days · 24 km away
- 6,140 haWhitsundayDecember 2017 · 8 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mackay fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 October 2021 and 7 November 2021: 15 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 6,014 hectares (60.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Whitsunday (3,863 ha, 0.2 %); Mackay (2,179 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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.