Mareeba fire, 19 November 2021 Mareeba, Etheridge
The fire started on 19 November 2021 in Mareeba, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,265 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 1322th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 332 in Australia in 2021, of 460.
- Burnt area
- 6,265ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 19 Nov 2021 – 24 Nov 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 19 Nov
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 227
- in a single hotspot: 46 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 26.2 mm on 25 Nov.
This area had burned before
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,078 ha in 2016, 1,744 ha in 2017, 2,015 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,056 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mareeba where it started5,701 ha reached on 19 Nov0.1 %
-
611 ha reached on 20 Nov0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Nov | 36.1 °C | 21 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Nov | 37.7 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Nov | 38.4 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Nov | 37.3 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Nov | 39.5 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Nov | 37.1 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 7.9 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 25 Nov after | 32.9 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 26.2 mm | Very low 3 |
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 · 227Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,916 haMareeba11 November 2016 · 16 days · 16 km away
- 54,053 haEtheridge3 December 2016 · 8 days · 17 km away
- 14,582 haMareeba15 December 2019 · 14 days · 18 km away
- 15,406 haEtheridge12 November 2023 · 10 days · 21 km away
- 176,591 haMareeba15 October 2025 · 27 days · 32 km away
- 19,106 haMareeba27 November 2020 · 12 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mareeba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 November 2021 and 24 November 2021: 6 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 6,265 hectares (62.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mareeba (5,701 ha, 0.1 %); Etheridge (611 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
- 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.