Roper Gulf fire, 11 August 2026 Roper Gulf
The fire started on 11 August 2026 in Roper Gulf, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,989 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 919th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3512 with a page). Number 212 in Australia in 2026, of 894.
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- Burnt area
- 14,989ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 11 Aug 2026 – 1 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 11 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 357
- in a single hotspot: 149 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 183MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,595 ha in 2017, 853 ha in 2018, 10,572 ha in 2019, 2,590 ha in 2020, 1,798 ha in 2021, 4,468 ha in 2022, 7,327 ha in 2023, 4,449 ha in 2024, 1,724 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,142 ha that had burned before.
- 5,687 ha Roper Gulf fire, August 2019 10,123 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,495 ha Roper Gulf fire, July 2019 7,320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,213 ha Roper Gulf fire, September 2022 5,621 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,524 ha Roper Gulf fire, August 2024 7,658 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 885 ha Roper Gulf fire, October 2025 26,449 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 287 ha Roper Gulf fire, August 2017 43,561 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 229 ha Roper Gulf fire, July 2017 10,340 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 76 ha Roper Gulf fire, August 2021 9,498 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Roper Gulf where it started15,074 ha reached on 11 Aug0.1 %
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 2025Inside 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 32.8 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Aug | 34.2 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Aug | 32.8 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Aug | 32.9 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 15 Aug | 33.3 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Aug | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Aug | 32.3 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Aug | 31.8 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Aug | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Aug | 32.7 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Aug | 33.2 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Aug | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Aug | 33.5 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Aug | 34.3 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Aug | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Aug | 33.2 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Aug | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Aug | 34.0 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Aug | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Aug | 33.6 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 31 Aug | 32.8 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 1 Sept | 32.0 °C | 22 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 2 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 43 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Sept after | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Sept after | 37.3 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 9 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 19 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 17 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 18 Sept after | 33.1 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 10 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 357Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Roper Gulf fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 August 2026 and 1 September 2026: 22 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 14,989 hectares (149.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Roper Gulf (15,074 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 357 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.
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.