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Roper Gulf fire, 7 October 2018 Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 13 Nov 2018, 15:35 UTC

The fire started on 7 October 2018 in Roper Gulf, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,048 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 433th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3511 with a page). Number 87 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Roper Gulf · 2026Roper Gulf · 2018Roper Gulf · 2024Roper Gulf · 2020

Burnt area
26,048ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
7 Oct 2018 – 13 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
7 Oct
2018
Heat detections
1,395
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
291MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Oct13 Nov
13 Nov 2018

How it evolved, day by day

7 Oct 2018 · 85 MW · 12 8 Oct 2018 · 97 MW · 13 9 Oct 2018 · 191 MW · 20 10 Oct 2018 · 138 MW · 44 11 Oct 2018 · 378 MW · 51 12 Oct 2018 · 358 MW · 54 13 Oct 2018 · 227 MW · 44 14 Oct 2018 · 216 MW · 43 15 Oct 2018 · 147 MW · 35 16 Oct 2018 · 189 MW · 34 17 Oct 2018 · 69 MW · 17 18 Oct 2018 · 45 MW · 6 19 Oct 2018 · 60 MW · 13 20 Oct 2018 · 37 MW · 8 21 Oct 2018 · 555 MW · 40 22 Oct 2018 · 720 MW · 78 23 Oct 2018 · 1,673 MW · 157 24 Oct 2018 · 640 MW · 76 25 Oct 2018 · 546 MW · 57 26 Oct 2018 · 231 MW · 55 27 Oct 2018 · 849 MW · 73 28 Oct 2018 · 685 MW · 72 29 Oct 2018 · 561 MW · 65 30 Oct 2018 · 323 MW · 61 31 Oct 2018 · 310 MW · 55 1 Nov 2018 · 96 MW · 22 2 Nov 2018 · 197 MW · 34 3 Nov 2018 · 81 MW · 10 4 Nov 2018 · 137 MW · 34 5 Nov 2018 · 285 MW · 34 6 Nov 2018 · 212 MW · 23 7 Nov 2018 · 217 MW · 11 8 Nov 2018 · 74 MW · 3 9 Nov 2018 · 227 MW · 16 10 Nov 2018 · 58 MW · 6 11 Nov 2018 · 76 MW · 13 12 Nov 2018 · 43 MW · 4 13 Nov 2018 · 6 MW · 2
7 Oct 13 Oct 19 Oct 23 Oct 25 Oct 31 Oct 6 Nov 12 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
55km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,135 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 16% of the area of London (260 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
    25,931 ha reached on 7 Oct
    0.1 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

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

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
7 Oct 35.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Oct 36.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Oct 35.4 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Oct 35.8 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Oct 36.4 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Oct 33.8 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
13 Oct 37.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Oct 37.3 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Oct 37.3 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Oct 36.4 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Oct 34.7 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.7 mm High 34
18 Oct 35.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Oct 37.7 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Oct 37.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Oct 37.0 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Oct 38.5 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Oct 38.4 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Oct 37.6 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Oct 36.2 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Oct 37.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Oct 36.7 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Oct 37.2 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Oct 38.8 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Oct 38.6 °C 27 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Oct 36.2 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Nov 35.8 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Nov 34.7 °C 45 % 55 km/h 0.9 mm High 30
3 Nov 34.7 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
4 Nov 34.0 °C 42 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
5 Nov 36.6 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
6 Nov 37.1 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Nov 37.5 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Nov 36.1 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Nov 35.8 °C 42 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Nov 35.9 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
11 Nov 37.4 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Nov 36.0 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
13 Nov 35.2 °C 39 % 47 km/h 1.1 mm High 32
14 Nov after 34.8 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
15 Nov after 35.2 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
16 Nov after 34.9 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Nov after 35.7 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Nov after 35.7 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Nov after 36.0 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Nov after 37.1 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Nov after 36.8 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Nov after 38.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm High 36
23 Nov after 37.2 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Sept 2018
After · 20 Nov 2018

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 · 1,395Every 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 7 October 2018 to 13 November 2018 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 October 2018 to 6 November 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 26,048 hectares (260.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Roper Gulf (25,931 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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 · 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.
  1. Last day with fire: 6 November 2018 → 13 November 2018.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 October 2018 to 6 November 2018. 1,395 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.

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.