Murweh fire, 25 March 2018 Central Highlands (Qld), Murweh
The fire started on 25 March 2018 in Murweh, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,611 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 1503th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 802 in Australia in 2018, of 923.
- Burnt area
- 5,611ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 25 Mar 2018 – 1 Apr 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 357
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 63 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
5,643 ha reached on 18 Mar0.1 %
-
Murweh where it started21 ha reached on 18 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar | 27.7 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 26 Mar | 27.3 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 27 Mar | 28.3 °C | 44 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Mar | 30.5 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 29 Mar | 30.5 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Mar | 30.2 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Mar | 29.7 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Apr | 26.1 °C | 52 % | 40 km/h | 1.7 mm | Low 8 |
| 2 Apr after | 27.3 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 3 Apr after | 27.9 °C | 25 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Apr after | 24.4 °C | 39 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Apr after | 26.7 °C | 34 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Apr after | 26.6 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Apr after | 27.2 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Apr after | 28.0 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Apr after | 28.2 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Apr after | 29.1 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Apr after | 26.0 °C | 35 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
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 · 357Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 25,887 haMurwehAugust 2018 · 10 days · 17 km away
- 25,136 haCentral Highlands (Qld)11 November 2025 · 3 days · 22 km away
- 22,228 haMurwehOctober 2017 · 11 days · 27 km away
- 17,200 haMurwehOctober 2020 · 11 days · 30 km away
- 32,328 haCentral Highlands (Qld)23 December 2018 · 16 days · 40 km away
- 21,781 haCentral Highlands (Qld)November 2020 · 21 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Murweh fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2018 and 1 April 2018: 8 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 5,611 hectares (56.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Central Highlands (Qld) (5,643 ha, 0.1 %); Murweh (21 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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
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.