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Maranoa fire, 18 December 2018 Maranoa, Central Highlands (Qld)

Out · last detection 8 Jan 2019, 03:33 UTC

The fire started on 18 December 2018 in Maranoa, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,622 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 473th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 221 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
14,622ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
18 Dec 2018 – 7 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
18 Dec
2018
Heat detections
1,022
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Energy released
7.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Dec7 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223242526272829303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
51km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,707 ha in 2016, 842 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Maranoa where it started
    12,342 ha reached on 18 Dec
    0.2 %
  2. Central Highlands (Qld)
    2,213 ha reached on 23 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)
11 Dec 31.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Dec 31.3 °C 32 % 41 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 17
13 Dec 23.2 °C 73 % 51 km/h 10.8 mm Very low 0
14 Dec 30.6 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
15 Dec 30.1 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
16 Dec 26.4 °C 48 % 30 km/h 5.5 mm Very low 2
17 Dec 31.3 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
18 Dec 32.2 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
19 Dec 31.7 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Dec 33.1 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Dec 35.7 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
22 Dec 31.8 °C 32 % 29 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 3
23 Dec 28.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
24 Dec 27.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Dec 27.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Dec 29.3 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Dec 29.4 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Dec 28.9 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
29 Dec 29.6 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 Dec 30.0 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 Dec 30.1 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Jan 30.6 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Jan 30.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
3 Jan 30.6 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Jan 30.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
5 Jan 30.9 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Jan 33.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Jan 31.0 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Jan after 25.6 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Jan after 23.5 °C 71 % 34 km/h 7.1 mm Very low 0
10 Jan after 28.0 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
11 Jan after 30.2 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
12 Jan after 32.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Jan after 32.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Jan after 29.6 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Jan after 31.7 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Jan after 34.2 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Jan after 32.5 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Jan after 31.2 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Jan after 32.2 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Jan after 32.9 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jan after 31.3 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Jan after 31.3 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Jan after 33.7 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
24 Jan after 33.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Dec 2018
After · 14 Jan 2019

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 · 1,022Every 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 18 December 2018 and 7 January 2019: 21 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 14,622 hectares (146.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maranoa (12,342 ha, 0.2 %); Central Highlands (Qld) (2,213 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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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.