Mackay fire, October 2024 Mackay, Whitsunday
The fire started on 31 October 2024 in Mackay, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,527 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 172th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1742 with a page). Number 51 in Australia in 2024, of 636.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 32,527ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 31 Oct 2024 – 23 Nov 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 31 Oct
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 996
- in a single hotspot: 58 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 514MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 29 Nov.
This area had burned before
54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,080 ha in 2016, 9,342 ha in 2017, 3,060 ha in 2021, 8,881 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,425 ha that had burned before.
- 8,335 ha Whitsunday fire, October 2022 18,287 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,456 ha Mackay fire, January 2017 8,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,060 ha Mackay fire, October 2021 6,014 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Mackay fire, October 2017 9,477 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Mackay where it started22,147 ha reached on 31 Oct2.9 %
-
10,514 ha reached on 1 Nov0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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 Oct | 28.3 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 1 Nov | 28.9 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Nov | 26.5 °C | 53 % | 37 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 3 Nov | 26.0 °C | 53 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 4 Nov | 26.8 °C | 50 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 5 Nov | 27.6 °C | 41 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Nov | 28.2 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 Nov | 30.3 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Nov | 31.4 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 9 Nov | 31.4 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Nov | 28.6 °C | 50 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Nov | 28.7 °C | 50 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Nov | 29.6 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 13 Nov | 30.1 °C | 43 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Nov | 31.3 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Nov | 28.7 °C | 55 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 16 Nov | 28.4 °C | 50 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 17 Nov | 27.0 °C | 58 % | 50 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Nov | 26.9 °C | 53 % | 46 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 19 Nov | 26.9 °C | 50 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Nov | 25.7 °C | 69 % | 36 km/h | 13.7 mm | Very low 1 |
| 21 Nov | 22.1 °C | 84 % | 45 km/h | 34.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 22 Nov | 24.5 °C | 69 % | 53 km/h | 13.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 23 Nov | 25.4 °C | 64 % | 52 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 1 |
| 24 Nov after | 26.2 °C | 59 % | 51 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 3 |
| 25 Nov after | 26.0 °C | 57 % | 45 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 5 |
| 26 Nov after | 26.8 °C | 58 % | 42 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 6 |
| 27 Nov after | 28.1 °C | 50 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 28 Nov after | 27.8 °C | 54 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 29 Nov after | 26.5 °C | 67 % | 36 km/h | 3.1 mm | Very low 1 |
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 8 November 2024 the air beside the fire reached 63 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 2.0 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 · 996Every 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 · 3 km away
- 8,241 haMackayJanuary 2017 · 10 days · 3 km away
- 6,014 haMackayOctober 2021 · 15 days · 13 km away
- 9,477 haMackayOctober 2017 · 14 days · 14 km away
- 6,071 haMackayNovember 2024 · 4 days · 16 km away
- 9,350 haWhitsunday2 December 2023 · 9 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mackay fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 October 2024 to 23 November 2024 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 November 2024 to 19 November 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 32,527 hectares (325.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mackay (22,147 ha, 2.9 %); Whitsunday (10,514 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 53 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 19 November 2024 → 23 November 2024.
- Start date: 4 November 2024 → 31 October 2024.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 November 2024 to 19 November 2024. 996 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.