Burned area
satellite only26,618ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2019 – 28 Oct 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
AU · Australia · –
Richmond Valley fire, October 2019 Richmond Valley, Clarence Valley
Out · last detection 28 Oct 2019, 14:54 UTC
The fire started on 4 October 2019 in Richmond Valley, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,618 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 31th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 63 in Australia in 2019, of 288.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only25days
4 Oct 2019 to 28 Oct 2019: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 28 Oct 2019, 14:54 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only4 Oct 2019
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 4 Oct 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only1,656
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 162 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2019 – 28 Oct 2019
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only5,833MW
Total radiative power on 8 October 2019; hotspots that day: 812.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Oct 2019
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model28.0FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2019, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model37.0°C · 13% RH
High of 37.0 °C and minimum humidity of 13% on 7 October 2019; gusts of 67 km/h on 8 October 2019.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 4 Oct 2019 – 28 Oct 2019
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 80people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 4.8 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 22 October 2019 → 28 October 2019.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 26,618 ha
- Dates
- 4 Oct 2019 – 28 Oct 2019
- Name
- Richmond Valley
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/richmond-valley-2019-10?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire richmond-valley-2019-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-10-04 | 5 | 9 | 31.4 | 8.4 | 14 | 14.4 | 33.1 | 0 | 28 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-05 | 0 | 0 | 24.6 | 11.3 | 47 | 18.1 | 41 | 0 | 26.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-06 | 35 | 148 | 29.9 | 13.6 | 29 | 8.4 | 25.6 | 0 | 26.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-07 | 44 | 300 | 37 | 12.6 | 13 | 13.8 | 42.8 | 0 | 40.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-08 | 812 | 5,833 | 35.8 | 17 | 16 | 23 | 67 | 0 | 72 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2019-10-09 | 366 | 4,203 | 23.2 | 12.8 | 22 | 18 | 46.8 | 0 | 41 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-10 | 147 | 1,446 | 22.1 | 11 | 28 | 15.3 | 37.8 | 0 | 33 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-11 | 14 | 23 | 19.5 | 11.5 | 46 | 12.6 | 31 | 14 | 21.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-10-12 | 16 | 17 | 15.2 | 10.4 | 79 | 10.1 | 25.9 | 17.3 | 0 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2019-10-13 | 0 | 0 | 19.8 | 9.2 | 49 | 14.3 | 43.6 | 0.2 | 1 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2019-10-14 | 19 | 47 | 26.5 | 10.8 | 33 | 13.1 | 29.5 | 0 | 4.1 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2019-10-15 | 41 | 91 | 26.2 | 13.7 | 53 | 9.8 | 30.6 | 6.2 | 1.2 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2019-10-16 | 35 | 277 | 33.1 | 14.2 | 28 | 16.9 | 39.2 | 0 | 14.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-10-17 | 46 | 153 | 34.2 | 19.6 | 25 | 25.1 | 66.6 | 0.5 | 33.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-18 | 29 | 90 | 28.5 | 12.8 | 25 | 18.7 | 49.3 | 0 | 19.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-10-19 | 7 | 26 | 30.9 | 10.4 | 19 | 11.2 | 36 | 0 | 20.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-10-20 | 4 | 10 | 24.1 | 12.8 | 38 | 19 | 47.9 | 0 | 25.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-21 | 4 | 55 | 23.4 | 13.3 | 32 | 14.7 | 41.4 | 0 | 23.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-22 | 8 | 5 | 25.3 | 10.4 | 33 | 11.2 | 31 | 0 | 20.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-10-23 | 12 | 34 | 28 | 11 | 28 | 12.7 | 30.2 | 0 | 21 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-10-24 | 6 | 36 | 30.6 | 9.6 | 19 | 13.3 | 32.8 | 0 | 25.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-25 | 3 | 13 | 31.1 | 11.2 | 18 | 17.8 | 38.9 | 0 | 32.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-26 | 1 | 2 | 32.9 | 14.5 | 21 | 16.7 | 46.4 | 0 | 40.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-27 | 0 | 0 | 28.2 | 15.4 | 30 | 20.4 | 54.4 | 0 | 23.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-28 | 2 | 1 | 27.1 | 13.4 | 32 | 15.5 | 42.1 | 1 | 32.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-10-29 | 0 | 0 | 27.5 | 13.7 | 28 | 16.3 | 38.5 | 0 | 21 | moderado | 0 |
| 2019-10-30 | 0 | 0 | 26.7 | 12.6 | 36 | 9.4 | 22.7 | 0 | 19.3 | moderado | 0 |
| 2019-10-31 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 13.8 | 28 | 14 | 36 | 0 | 25.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-11-01 | 0 | 0 | 25.1 | 13.3 | 43 | 14.7 | 36.4 | 0.2 | 25.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-11-02 | 0 | 0 | 26.1 | 15 | 43 | 13.6 | 37.8 | 0.8 | 22 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-11-03 | 0 | 0 | 27.8 | 14.6 | 41 | 16.7 | 38.5 | 0 | 24 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-11-04 | 0 | 0 | 32.4 | 18.9 | 17 | 15.5 | 43.6 | 0.8 | 33.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-11-05 | 0 | 0 | 26.6 | 13.6 | 11 | 23 | 60.8 | 0.4 | 59.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2019-11-06 | 0 | 0 | 29.5 | 7.7 | 15 | 13.9 | 32.4 | 0 | 32.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-11-07 | 0 | 0 | 35.4 | 8.6 | 7 | 15.7 | 39.2 | 0 | 56.3 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 26,618ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 25days
- 4 Oct 2019 – 28 Oct 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 4 Oct
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 1,656
- in a single hotspot: 162 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 583MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
4 Oct28 Oct
28 Oct 2019
How it evolved, day by day
8 Oct
16 Oct
21 Oct
26 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
37°high
67km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,610 ha in 2016, 6,248 ha in 2017, 2,138 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,109 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Richmond Valley where it started18,256 ha reached on 4 Oct6.0 %
-
8,412 ha reached on 8 Oct0.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area4.8 ha
Residents≈ 80
Inside the perimeter there were about 4.8 hectares of built-up land and about 80 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Very dry air: 28 % of the area in Australia
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Oct | 31.4 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Oct | 24.6 °C | 47 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Oct | 29.9 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Oct | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Oct | 35.8 °C | 16 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 9 Oct | 23.2 °C | 22 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Oct | 22.1 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Oct | 19.5 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 14.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Oct | 15.2 °C | 79 % | 26 km/h | 17.3 mm | Very low 0 |
| 13 Oct | 19.8 °C | 49 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 1 |
| 14 Oct | 26.5 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 15 Oct | 26.2 °C | 53 % | 31 km/h | 6.2 mm | Very low 1 |
| 16 Oct | 33.1 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 17 Oct | 34.2 °C | 25 % | 67 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Oct | 28.5 °C | 25 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 19 Oct | 30.9 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Oct | 24.1 °C | 38 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Oct | 23.4 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Oct | 25.3 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Oct | 28.0 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 24 Oct | 30.6 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Oct | 31.1 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Oct | 32.9 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Oct | 28.2 °C | 30 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Oct | 27.1 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Oct after | 27.5 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 30 Oct after | 26.7 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 31 Oct after | 28.4 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Nov after | 25.1 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Nov after | 26.1 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Nov after | 27.8 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Nov after | 32.4 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Nov after | 26.6 °C | 11 % | 61 km/h | 0.4 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 6 Nov after | 29.5 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Nov after | 35.4 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.0, a minimum humidity of 14% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 12.
FWI at the start
28.0
Minimum humidity
14 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Richmond Valley fire, October 2019
26,618 ha
25 days
FWI 28.0
Min. humidity 14 %
Armidale fire, December 2019
6,365 ha
7 days
FWI 28.8
Min. humidity 18 %
142 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 22 Dec.
Tenterfield fire, August 2018
5,025 ha
5 days
FWI 32.7
Min. humidity 18 %
76 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 24 Aug.
Inverell fire, February 2019
26,028 ha
11 days
FWI 23.3
Min. humidity 17 %
185 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Tamworth fire, January 2018
16,073 ha
7 days
FWI 31.0
Min. humidity 19 %
227 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 16.3 mm on 25 Jan.
Tamworth fire, February 2019
5,429 ha
6 days
FWI 34.4
Min. humidity 17 %
238 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 12. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
67km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 28 Oct, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 27 Sept 2019
After · 4 Nov 2019
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 1,656Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Richmond Valley fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 October 2019 to 28 October 2019 (25 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2019 to 22 October 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 26,618 hectares (266.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Richmond Valley (18,256 ha, 6.0 %); Clarence Valley (8,412 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 22 October 2019 → 28 October 2019.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 October 2019 to 22 October 2019. 1,656 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.