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Roper Gulf fire, 21 August 2017 Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2017, 03:49 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2017 in Roper Gulf, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 100,144 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 58th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3511 with a page). Number 13 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Roper Gulf · 2026Roper Gulf · 2023Roper Gulf · 2018Roper Gulf · 2026

Burnt area
100,144ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
21 Aug 2017 – 25 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
21 Aug
2017
Heat detections
3,513
in a single hotspot: 265 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
802MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug25 Sept
25 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

21 Aug 2017 · 432 MW · 61 22 Aug 2017 · 539 MW · 39 23 Aug 2017 · 1,952 MW · 88 24 Aug 2017 · 1,040 MW · 122 25 Aug 2017 · 226 MW · 51 26 Aug 2017 · 287 MW · 72 27 Aug 2017 · 875 MW · 124 28 Aug 2017 · 374 MW · 75 29 Aug 2017 · 530 MW · 81 30 Aug 2017 · 270 MW · 110 31 Aug 2017 · 971 MW · 158 1 Sept 2017 · 472 MW · 87 2 Sept 2017 · 1,740 MW · 114 3 Sept 2017 · 522 MW · 66 4 Sept 2017 · 336 MW · 71 5 Sept 2017 · 1,116 MW · 161 6 Sept 2017 · 729 MW · 128 7 Sept 2017 · 809 MW · 148 8 Sept 2017 · 664 MW · 127 9 Sept 2017 · 4,050 MW · 268 10 Sept 2017 · 1,171 MW · 267 11 Sept 2017 · 1,517 MW · 234 12 Sept 2017 · 1,973 MW · 171 13 Sept 2017 · 578 MW · 63 14 Sept 2017 · 640 MW · 106 15 Sept 2017 · 437 MW · 88 16 Sept 2017 · 404 MW · 81 17 Sept 2017 · 724 MW · 134 18 Sept 2017 · 431 MW · 75 19 Sept 2017 · 1,635 MW · 83 20 Sept 2017 · 92 MW · 8 21 Sept 2017 · 267 MW · 28 22 Sept 2017 · 160 MW · 10 23 Sept 2017 · 781 MW · 6 24 Sept 2017 · 105 MW · 6 25 Sept 2017 · 20 MW · 2
21 Aug 27 Aug 2 Sept 8 Sept 9 Sept 14 Sept 20 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
53km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 276 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 63% of the area of London (1,001 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Roper Gulf where it started
    100,694 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.5 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Aug 33.8 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Aug 34.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Aug 34.9 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Aug 35.5 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Aug 32.1 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Aug 31.7 °C 7 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Aug 32.7 °C 6 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
28 Aug 30.5 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
29 Aug 31.7 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Aug 31.6 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
31 Aug 33.1 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Sept 34.1 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Sept 35.3 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept 35.3 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Sept 35.4 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 35.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Sept 34.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
7 Sept 33.3 °C 5 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
8 Sept 32.9 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
9 Sept 34.0 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
10 Sept 34.1 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Sept 35.2 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Sept 36.5 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept 37.3 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Sept 35.0 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Sept 35.4 °C 6 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
16 Sept 35.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Sept 35.3 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Sept 35.7 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Sept 36.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Sept 36.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept 36.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Sept 37.6 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept 37.9 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 38.0 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Sept 37.1 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept after 38.3 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept after 38.9 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept after 38.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept after 37.3 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Sept after 38.1 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Oct after 37.6 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Oct after 36.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Oct after 38.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Oct after 38.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Oct after 37.9 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2017
After · 2 Oct 2017

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 · 3,513Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Roper Gulf fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 August 2017 to 25 September 2017 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2017 to 24 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 100,144 hectares (1,001.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Roper Gulf (100,694 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 24 September 2017 → 25 September 2017.
  2. Start date: 22 August 2017 → 21 August 2017.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

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 22 August 2017 to 24 September 2017. 3,513 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 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.