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AU · Australia · –

Roper Gulf fire, 25 October 2020 Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 4 Dec 2020, 04:25 UTC

The fire started on 25 October 2020 in Roper Gulf, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 77,341 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This entry is probably a savanna fire in Australia’s tropical north, not a bushfire like those in the south of the country. Millions of hectares of northern savanna and grassland burn every year: much of it in burns lit on purpose early in the dry season (traditional fire management, parks and cattle stations), the rest in grass fires that return to the same ground every few years. This is our assumption, based on the location; it is not confirmed. That is why it is left out of the wildfire rankings.

Burnt area
77,341ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
40days
25 Oct 2020 – 3 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
25 Oct
2020
Heat detections
3,254
in a single hotspot: 615 MW
Danger at start
5
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
1.7GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Oct3 Dec
4 Dec 2020

How it evolved, day by day

25 Oct 2020 · 28 MW · 3 27 Oct 2020 · 1,089 MW · 66 28 Oct 2020 · 13,819 MW · 455 29 Oct 2020 · 3,998 MW · 206 30 Oct 2020 · 12,585 MW · 377 31 Oct 2020 · 2,353 MW · 169 1 Nov 2020 · 4,204 MW · 186 2 Nov 2020 · 3,273 MW · 210 3 Nov 2020 · 1,774 MW · 73 4 Nov 2020 · 2,385 MW · 168 5 Nov 2020 · 4,358 MW · 269 6 Nov 2020 · 574 MW · 59 7 Nov 2020 · 2,909 MW · 190 8 Nov 2020 · 2,335 MW · 116 9 Nov 2020 · 149 MW · 16 10 Nov 2020 · 1,936 MW · 104 11 Nov 2020 · 1,089 MW · 60 13 Nov 2020 · 52 MW · 4 14 Nov 2020 · 327 MW · 25 15 Nov 2020 · 118 MW · 8 16 Nov 2020 · 247 MW · 29 17 Nov 2020 · 1,115 MW · 79 18 Nov 2020 · 478 MW · 52 19 Nov 2020 · 115 MW · 12 20 Nov 2020 · 37 MW · 7 21 Nov 2020 · 63 MW · 4 22 Nov 2020 · 21 MW · 8 23 Nov 2020 · 716 MW · 56 24 Nov 2020 · 1,313 MW · 80 25 Nov 2020 · 1,064 MW · 94 26 Nov 2020 · 62 MW · 7 27 Nov 2020 · 217 MW · 20 28 Nov 2020 · 11 MW · 2 29 Nov 2020 · 74 MW · 8 30 Nov 2020 · 67 MW · 16 1 Dec 2020 · 69 MW · 11 3 Dec 2020 · 57 MW · 3 4 Dec 2020 · 9 MW · 2
28 Oct 3 Nov 11 Nov 20 Nov 28 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

38°high
52km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.9 mm on 11 Dec.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,732 ha in 2016, 5,793 ha in 2017, 9,198 ha in 2018, 636 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 26,738 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 49% of the area of London (773 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
    78,155 ha reached on 25 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
25 Oct 33.9 °C 52 % 36 km/h 5.9 mm Very low 5
26 Oct 34.1 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
27 Oct 35.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Oct 35.5 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Oct 36.3 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Oct 37.4 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Oct 35.5 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Nov 36.5 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Nov 38.3 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Nov 34.7 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Nov 34.8 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Nov 37.1 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Nov 36.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm High 32
7 Nov 38.5 °C 7 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
8 Nov 36.3 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Nov 33.9 °C 49 % 42 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 21
10 Nov 34.1 °C 47 % 46 km/h 1.0 mm High 23
11 Nov 35.1 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
12 Nov 32.5 °C 51 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Nov 35.5 °C 43 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
14 Nov 35.1 °C 47 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
15 Nov 36.4 °C 39 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm High 28
16 Nov 36.7 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
17 Nov 36.5 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.9 mm High 28
18 Nov 37.1 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Nov 34.4 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
20 Nov 34.8 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
21 Nov 32.4 °C 50 % 42 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 19
22 Nov 34.1 °C 50 % 43 km/h 3.5 mm Low 11
23 Nov 36.1 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
24 Nov 37.4 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Nov 38.1 °C 34 % 42 km/h 1.1 mm High 33
26 Nov 37.6 °C 36 % 40 km/h 1.4 mm High 28
27 Nov 36.2 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
28 Nov 34.5 °C 46 % 41 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 19
29 Nov 35.2 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
30 Nov 34.3 °C 53 % 41 km/h 4.0 mm Low 10
1 Dec 35.7 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
2 Dec 35.2 °C 49 % 38 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 14
3 Dec 34.9 °C 47 % 43 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
4 Dec after 33.6 °C 55 % 43 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
5 Dec after 35.9 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Dec after 36.1 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Dec after 38.0 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Dec after 38.3 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Dec after 38.0 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 40
10 Dec after 35.3 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
11 Dec after 34.2 °C 53 % 36 km/h 10.9 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Oct 2020
After · 10 Dec 2020

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 · 3,254Every 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 25 October 2020 to 3 December 2020 (40 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 October 2020 to 27 November 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 77,341 hectares (773.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Roper Gulf (78,155 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 27 November 2020 → 3 December 2020.
  2. Start date: 27 October 2020 → 25 October 2020.

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
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 27 October 2020 to 27 November 2020. 3,254 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.
  • Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.

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.