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Roper Gulf fire, 11 August 2019 Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2019, 04:32 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2019 in Roper Gulf, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 62,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 133th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3517 with a page). Number 45 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Roper Gulf · 2017Roper Gulf · 2017Roper Gulf · 2025Roper Gulf · 2019

Burnt area
62,404ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
11 Aug 2019 – 18 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
11 Aug
2019
Heat detections
2,172
in a single hotspot: 440 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
468MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug18 Sept
18 Sept 2019

How it evolved, day by day

11 Aug 2019 · 353 MW · 38 12 Aug 2019 · 92 MW · 26 13 Aug 2019 · 90 MW · 28 14 Aug 2019 · 19 MW · 7 15 Aug 2019 · 275 MW · 50 16 Aug 2019 · 565 MW · 94 17 Aug 2019 · 639 MW · 72 18 Aug 2019 · 364 MW · 65 19 Aug 2019 · 1,626 MW · 285 20 Aug 2019 · 1,475 MW · 197 21 Aug 2019 · 552 MW · 52 22 Aug 2019 · 167 MW · 36 23 Aug 2019 · 515 MW · 46 24 Aug 2019 · 182 MW · 20 25 Aug 2019 · 145 MW · 21 26 Aug 2019 · 49 MW · 24 27 Aug 2019 · 739 MW · 42 28 Aug 2019 · 179 MW · 48 29 Aug 2019 · 321 MW · 58 30 Aug 2019 · 191 MW · 44 31 Aug 2019 · 316 MW · 84 1 Sept 2019 · 705 MW · 102 2 Sept 2019 · 3,555 MW · 108 3 Sept 2019 · 538 MW · 56 4 Sept 2019 · 154 MW · 24 5 Sept 2019 · 218 MW · 23 6 Sept 2019 · 120 MW · 23 7 Sept 2019 · 314 MW · 55 8 Sept 2019 · 933 MW · 73 9 Sept 2019 · 767 MW · 57 10 Sept 2019 · 376 MW · 77 11 Sept 2019 · 536 MW · 95 12 Sept 2019 · 356 MW · 40 13 Sept 2019 · 235 MW · 28 14 Sept 2019 · 12 MW · 7 15 Sept 2019 · 371 MW · 22 16 Sept 2019 · 27 MW · 8 17 Sept 2019 · 66 MW · 16 18 Sept 2019 · 115 MW · 21
11 Aug 17 Aug 23 Aug 29 Aug 2 Sept 4 Sept 10 Sept 16 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

36°high
58km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21,576 ha in 2017, 3,378 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 23,401 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 39% of the area of London (624 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
    63,034 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
11 Aug 27.2 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Aug 26.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Aug 27.5 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Aug 29.1 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Aug 30.3 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Aug 32.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Aug 33.9 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Aug 35.1 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Aug 31.0 °C 16 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Aug 28.3 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Aug 29.8 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Aug 30.9 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Aug 31.2 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Aug 31.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Aug 32.0 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Aug 33.1 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Aug 32.2 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Aug 31.2 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Aug 28.9 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
30 Aug 30.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Aug 32.3 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Sept 33.9 °C 14 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
2 Sept 32.6 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Sept 32.5 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 Sept 32.1 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept 31.1 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 31.2 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 33.1 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Sept 35.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Sept 31.6 °C 6 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
10 Sept 32.2 °C 9 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
11 Sept 32.4 °C 8 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
12 Sept 32.3 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
13 Sept 32.9 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
14 Sept 32.6 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Sept 31.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept 30.9 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Sept 33.0 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept 35.8 °C 17 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
19 Sept after 34.7 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept after 33.3 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept after 32.8 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Sept after 35.6 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Sept after 35.7 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Sept after 34.4 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Sept after 34.9 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Sept after 35.2 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept after 35.4 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Sept after 36.4 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Sept after 38.2 °C 11 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
30 Sept after 37.3 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
1 Oct after 38.2 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Oct after 38.0 °C 9 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
3 Oct after 35.2 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Oct after 34.4 °C 26 % 60 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 64
5 Oct after 34.4 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2019
After · 25 Sept 2019

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 · 2,172Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 August 2019 and 18 September 2019: 39 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 62,404 hectares (624.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Roper Gulf (63,034 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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
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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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2,172 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.