How long did the Mount Isa fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 September 2026 to 26 September 2026 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 September 2026 to 23 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 34,354 hectares (343.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mount Isa (33,258 ha, 0.8 %); Burke (1,126 ha, 0.0 %).

Is the Mount Isa fire still active?

No fire detections since 26 Sept 2026, 15:58 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.

AU · Australia · 2026-09-18 → 2026-09-26

Mount Isa fire, 18 September 2026 Mount Isa, Burke

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2026, 15:58 UTC

The fire started on 18 September 2026 in Mount Isa, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,354 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 162th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 65 in Australia in 2026, of 859.

Burnt area: 34,354ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 18 Sept 2026 – 26 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 18 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 794; in a single hotspot: 214 MW
Danger at start: 56; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 12.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232426

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

47km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 514 ha in 2016, 200 ha in 2017, 6,823 ha in 2018, 314 ha in 2019, 295 ha in 2020, 7,964 ha in 2022, 18,481 ha in 2023, 222 ha in 2024, 9,245 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 28,074 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Mount Isa where it started

33,258 ha reached on 18 Sept

0.8 %
Burke

1,126 ha reached on 22 Sept

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	Danger (FWI)
18 Sept	32.2 °C	24 %	45 km/h	Extreme 56
19 Sept	31.5 °C	19 %	47 km/h	Extreme 58
20 Sept	33.1 °C	15 %	25 km/h	Very high 45
21 Sept	34.7 °C	13 %	20 km/h	Very high 45
22 Sept	34.6 °C	10 %	35 km/h	Extreme 58
23 Sept	34.0 °C	18 %	37 km/h	Extreme 58
24 Sept	33.3 °C	20 %	34 km/h	Extreme 55
25 Sept	31.7 °C	24 %	40 km/h	Extreme 54
26 Sept	32.0 °C	24 %	45 km/h	Extreme 56
27 Sept after	33.2 °C	22 %	40 km/h	Extreme 54
28 Sept after	33.3 °C	21 %	46 km/h	Extreme 59
29 Sept after	34.6 °C	20 %	48 km/h	Extreme 60
30 Sept after	33.5 °C	20 %	43 km/h	Extreme 56
1 Oct after	34.5 °C	25 %	35 km/h	Extreme 52
2 Oct after	34.8 °C	21 %	35 km/h	Extreme 51
3 Oct after	34.8 °C	20 %	25 km/h	Very high 45
4 Oct after	35.8 °C	17 %	26 km/h	Very high 47
5 Oct after	36.8 °C	17 %	23 km/h	Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Sept 2026

After · 3 Oct 2026

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 22 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 110 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak110 µg/m³

Days over the guideline6 days

PM10116 µg/m³

Optical depth0.98

WHO 15

1617181920212223242526272829

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 · 794Every 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?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 September 2026 to 26 September 2026 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 September 2026 to 23 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 34,354 hectares (343.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mount Isa (33,258 ha, 0.8 %); Burke (1,126 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the Mount Isa fire still active?: No fire detections since 26 Sept 2026, 15:58 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

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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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.

Where it burned