How long did the Mount Isa fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 October 2023 and 31 October 2023: 14 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 38,754 hectares (387.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mount Isa (35,808 ha, 0.8 %); Cloncurry (3,377 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 99, class Very 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.

AU · Australia · 2023-10-18 → 2023-10-31

Mount Isa fire, 18 October 2023 Mount Isa, Cloncurry

Out · last detection 1 Nov 2023, 04:12 UTC

The fire started on 18 October 2023 in Mount Isa, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 38,754 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 137th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 127 in Australia in 2023, of 1235.

Burnt area: 38,754ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 14days; 18 Oct 2023 – 31 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 18 Oct; 2023
Heat detections: 1,416; in a single hotspot: 153 MW
Danger at start: 92; Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 15.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Nov 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Oct31 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

63km/h · peak gust

3%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 9 Nov.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 853 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

Mount Isa where it started

35,808 ha reached on 16 Oct

0.8 %
Cloncurry

3,377 ha reached on 21 Oct

0.1 %

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)
16 Oct	34.1 °C	9 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 92
17 Oct	33.7 °C	9 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 91
18 Oct	34.9 °C	7 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 77
19 Oct	36.4 °C	8 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 68
20 Oct	37.6 °C	4 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 74
21 Oct	37.6 °C	3 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 75
22 Oct	36.6 °C	6 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 89
23 Oct	37.1 °C	7 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 75
24 Oct	39.2 °C	7 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 91
25 Oct	38.2 °C	9 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 98
26 Oct	32.3 °C	8 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 98
27 Oct	31.2 °C	3 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 99
28 Oct	35.3 °C	10 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 78
29 Oct	35.7 °C	9 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 77
30 Oct	36.6 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
31 Oct	37.9 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
1 Nov after	40.1 °C	7 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 70
2 Nov after	39.6 °C	10 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 83
3 Nov after	39.0 °C	8 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 75
4 Nov after	37.7 °C	9 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 82
5 Nov after	36.3 °C	5 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 86
6 Nov after	36.5 °C	7 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 74
7 Nov after	38.7 °C	7 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 71
8 Nov after	37.4 °C	16 %	44 km/h	0.2 mm	Very extreme 71
9 Nov after	34.9 °C	27 %	52 km/h	1.9 mm	Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Oct 2023

After · 7 Nov 2023

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 29 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 67 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak67 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM10100 µg/m³

Optical depth1.93

WHO 15

16171819202122232425262728293031123

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 1,416Every 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 Mount Isa fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 October 2023 and 31 October 2023: 14 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 38,754 hectares (387.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mount Isa (35,808 ha, 0.8 %); Cloncurry (3,377 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 99, class Very 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

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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What really happened?

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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