How long did the Maranoa fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 December 2018 and 7 January 2019: 17 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 14,759 hectares (147.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maranoa (13,357 ha, 0.2 %); Central Highlands (Qld) (1,375 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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.

AU · Australia · 2018-12-22 → 2019-01-07

Maranoa fire, 22 December 2018 Maranoa, Central Highlands (Qld)

Out · last detection 7 Jan 2019, 15:06 UTC

The fire started on 22 December 2018 in Maranoa, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,759 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 463th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 217 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area: 14,759ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 22 Dec 2018 – 7 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 22 Dec; 2018
Heat detections: 1,427; in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start: 27; High · FWI index
Energy released: 10.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 7 Jan 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Dec7 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930311234567

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

44km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 342 ha in 2016, 125 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Maranoa where it started

13,357 ha reached on 22 Dec

0.2 %
Central Highlands (Qld)

1,375 ha reached on 28 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)
22 Dec	35.6 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Dec	31.7 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
24 Dec	31.0 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
25 Dec	31.5 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Dec	32.9 °C	14 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
27 Dec	33.2 °C	17 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
28 Dec	33.4 °C	25 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
29 Dec	34.2 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Dec	34.4 °C	21 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Dec	34.3 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
1 Jan	35.0 °C	15 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
2 Jan	34.6 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
3 Jan	35.0 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.3 mm	High 37
4 Jan	35.3 °C	22 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	High 37
5 Jan	34.6 °C	23 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
6 Jan	36.1 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
7 Jan	32.5 °C	25 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
8 Jan after	27.1 °C	49 %	37 km/h	1.9 mm	Low 10
9 Jan after	24.1 °C	73 %	33 km/h	18.3 mm	Very low 0
10 Jan after	31.0 °C	42 %	36 km/h	1.8 mm	Very low 4
11 Jan after	33.0 °C	31 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
12 Jan after	34.5 °C	16 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Jan after	34.3 °C	23 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
14 Jan after	32.8 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Jan after	35.8 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
16 Jan after	37.2 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Jan after	35.7 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
18 Jan after	34.5 °C	23 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
19 Jan after	36.1 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
20 Jan after	36.8 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Jan after	35.3 °C	24 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Jan after	35.2 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
23 Jan after	37.0 °C	21 %	30 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.

↔

Before · 15 Dec 2018

After · 14 Jan 2019

Before After

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 · 1,427Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Maranoa fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 December 2018 and 7 January 2019: 17 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 14,759 hectares (147.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maranoa (13,357 ha, 0.2 %); Central Highlands (Qld) (1,375 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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.

Where it burned