How long did the Murweh fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2018 and 25 August 2018: 10 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 25,887 hectares (258.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Central Highlands (Qld) (15,554 ha, 0.3 %); Murweh (7,298 ha, 0.2 %); Maranoa (3,118 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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 · 2018-08-16 → 2018-08-25

Murweh fire, August 2018 Central Highlands (Qld), Murweh, Maranoa

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2018, 15:18 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2018 in Murweh, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,887 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 223th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 92 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area: 25,887ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 10days; 16 Aug 2018 – 25 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit: 3; local government areas
Started on: 16 Aug; 2018
Heat detections: 1,166; in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start: 32; High · FWI index
Energy released: 8.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Aug 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

26°high

56km/h · peak gust

7%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.2 mm on 4 Sept.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 278 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Central Highlands (Qld)

15,554 ha reached on 18 Aug

0.3 %
Murweh where it started

7,298 ha reached on 16 Aug

0.2 %
Maranoa

3,118 ha reached on 22 Aug

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)
11 Aug	21.8 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
12 Aug	19.5 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
13 Aug	17.3 °C	12 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
14 Aug	21.7 °C	12 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
15 Aug	22.6 °C	12 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 Aug	24.9 °C	10 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
17 Aug	26.2 °C	8 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Aug	26.3 °C	9 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
19 Aug	19.1 °C	12 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
20 Aug	16.8 °C	10 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
21 Aug	19.7 °C	7 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Aug	20.6 °C	7 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Aug	21.7 °C	16 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
24 Aug	22.1 °C	27 %	48 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 38
25 Aug	19.3 °C	40 %	46 km/h	4.1 mm	Low 7
26 Aug after	20.2 °C	24 %	41 km/h	4.9 mm	Very low 5
27 Aug after	20.5 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
28 Aug after	21.1 °C	21 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
29 Aug after	22.3 °C	18 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
30 Aug after	22.5 °C	25 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
31 Aug after	25.4 °C	33 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
1 Sept after	25.1 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Sept after	24.9 °C	14 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
3 Sept after	23.9 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
4 Sept after	15.5 °C	43 %	32 km/h	5.2 mm	Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Aug 2018

After · 1 Sept 2018

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 · 1,166Every 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 Murweh fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2018 and 25 August 2018: 10 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 25,887 hectares (258.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Central Highlands (Qld) (15,554 ha, 0.3 %); Murweh (7,298 ha, 0.2 %); Maranoa (3,118 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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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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