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Maranoa fire, December 2017 Maranoa, Central Highlands (Qld)

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2017, 03:14 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2017 in Maranoa, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,435 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 723th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 310 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area
10,435ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 Dec 2017 – 21 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
12 Dec
2017
Heat detections
767
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec21 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
36km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 26 Dec.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 803 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 739 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Maranoa where it started
    8,988 ha reached on 12 Dec
    0.2 %
  2. Central Highlands (Qld)
    1,418 ha reached on 15 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
12 Dec 30.0 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
13 Dec 30.8 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
14 Dec 31.9 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 Dec 32.2 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Dec 32.1 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Dec 33.0 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Dec 32.3 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Dec 34.0 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Dec 34.6 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Dec 32.4 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
22 Dec after 26.2 °C 50 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Dec after 31.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Dec after 33.6 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Dec after 34.0 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Dec after 33.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2017
After · 28 Dec 2017

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 · 767Every 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 Maranoa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2017 and 21 December 2017: 10 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 10,435 hectares (104.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maranoa (8,988 ha, 0.2 %); Central Highlands (Qld) (1,418 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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.

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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.