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Roper Gulf fire, 16 June 2025 Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2025, 04:54 UTC

The fire started on 16 June 2025 in Roper Gulf, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,107 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2244th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3518 with a page). Number 727 in Australia in 2025, of 1124.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Roper Gulf · 2019Roper Gulf · 2022Roper Gulf · 2017Roper Gulf · 2016

Burnt area
7,107ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
16 Jun 2025 – 15 Jul 2025
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
16 Jun
2025
Heat detections
259
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
49MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jun15 Jul
15 Jul 2025

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jun 2025 · 37 MW · 4 17 Jun 2025 · 89 MW · 31 18 Jun 2025 · 124 MW · 27 19 Jun 2025 · 77 MW · 16 20 Jun 2025 · 72 MW · 16 21 Jun 2025 · 37 MW · 8 22 Jun 2025 · 64 MW · 9 25 Jun 2025 · 23 MW · 3 26 Jun 2025 · 18 MW · 7 27 Jun 2025 · 3 MW · 2 28 Jun 2025 · 7 MW · 8 29 Jun 2025 · 1 MW · 1 30 Jun 2025 · 45 MW · 9 1 Jul 2025 · 45 MW · 12 3 Jul 2025 · 24 MW · 6 4 Jul 2025 · 302 MW · 34 5 Jul 2025 · 8 MW · 2 6 Jul 2025 · 18 MW · 5 7 Jul 2025 · 52 MW · 10 8 Jul 2025 · 26 MW · 11 9 Jul 2025 · 32 MW · 9 10 Jul 2025 · 66 MW · 15 11 Jul 2025 · 33 MW · 10 12 Jul 2025 · 25 MW · 3 15 Jul 2025 · 3 MW · 1
16 Jun 20 Jun 26 Jun 30 Jun 4 Jul 5 Jul 9 Jul 15 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
53km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,231 ha in 2016, 3,337 ha in 2017, 2,051 ha in 2018, 6,879 ha in 2019, 845 ha in 2021, 4,073 ha in 2022, 637 ha in 2023, 590 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,079 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.5% of the area of London (71 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
    7,100 ha reached on 16 Jun
    0.0 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
16 Jun 28.9 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Jun 28.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Jun 28.5 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Jun 28.9 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Jun 29.8 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Jun 30.2 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Jun 29.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Jun 29.2 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Jun 31.1 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jun 30.5 °C 33 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jun 28.8 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jun 28.3 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jun 27.3 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jun 26.7 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jun 26.6 °C 35 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jul 27.4 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Jul 27.4 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Jul 28.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Jul 30.1 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jul 30.5 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jul 31.1 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Jul 30.0 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Jul 31.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Jul 30.8 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Jul 30.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Jul 28.5 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jul 29.9 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jul 31.1 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Jul 30.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Jul 31.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jul after 31.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jul after 30.2 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jul after 28.8 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jul after 29.4 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jul after 28.9 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jul after 29.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jul after 31.2 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Jul after 33.0 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jul after 33.0 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jul after 32.1 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jun 2025
After · 22 Jul 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 15 June 2025 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1042 µg/m³
Optical depth0.55
1415161718192021222324252627282930123456789101112131415
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 259Every 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 16 June 2025 to 15 July 2025 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 June 2025 to 12 July 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,107 hectares (71.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Roper Gulf (7,100 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
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: 12 July 2025 → 15 July 2025.

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 16 June 2025 to 12 July 2025. 259 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 2025, 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.