Burned area
satellite only35,513ha
Union of 2 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 12 Oct 2026 – 9 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
AU · Australia · –
Roper Gulf fire, 12 October 2026 Roper Gulf
Out · last detection 9 Nov 2026, 04:46 UTC
The fire started on 12 October 2026 in Roper Gulf, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 35,513 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
We are reviewing this page: some of its data look inconsistent (the place, the dates or the area), so treat them with caution.
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.
GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in October 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-12matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only29days
12 Oct 2026 to 9 Nov 2026: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 9 Nov 2026, 04:46 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only12 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 12 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only933
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 187 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
- Date
- 12 Oct 2026 – 9 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only4,170MW
Total radiative power on 31 October 2026; hotspots that day: 182.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 31 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model34.3FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 6.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 12 Oct 2026, local noon
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model39.4°C · 24% RH
High of 39.4 °C and minimum humidity of 24% on 3 November 2026; gusts of 46 km/h on 26 October 2026.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 12 Oct 2026 – 9 Nov 2026
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logLast day with fire: 24 October 2026 → 9 November 2026.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the forecast (provisional until ERA5 arrives)
-
logArea: 42,970 → 35,501 ha.
-
logArea: 41,975 → 42,970 ha.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
logArea: 40,200 → 41,975 ha.
-
logArea: 21,071 → 40,200 ha.
-
logArea: 19,590 → 21,071 ha.
-
logArea: 18,309 → 19,590 ha.
-
logArea: 17,902 → 18,309 ha.
-
logArea: 16,649 → 17,902 ha.
-
logArea: 16,113 → 16,649 ha.
-
logArea: 14,356 → 16,113 ha.
-
logArea: 13,696 → 14,356 ha.
-
logArea: 12,084 → 13,696 ha.
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/roper-gulf-2026-10-13?v=2026-11-12A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire roper-gulf-2026-10-13.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-12 | 14 | 137 | 35.5 | 22.3 | 38 | 17.7 | 38.2 | 0 | 34.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-13 | 1 | 1 | 35.6 | 22.6 | 37 | 15.7 | 36.7 | 0 | 36.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-14 | 8 | 55 | 35.7 | 23.2 | 37 | 16 | 38.9 | 0 | 36.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-15 | 7 | 32 | 35.3 | 22.4 | 38 | 16.3 | 38.5 | 0.2 | 40.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-16 | 4 | 23 | 35.8 | 23.1 | 34 | 17.2 | 38.9 | 0.2 | 40.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-17 | 10 | 46 | 35.2 | 23.4 | 37 | 15 | 37.1 | 0 | 39.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-18 | 27 | 107 | 35.6 | 23.5 | 37 | 17.1 | 37.4 | 0.4 | 38.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-19 | 8 | 32 | 35.6 | 22.6 | 34 | 17.3 | 39.2 | 0.1 | 45.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-20 | 27 | 339 | 35.4 | 22.6 | 34 | 18.8 | 42.8 | 0 | 47.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-21 | 31 | 174 | 35.2 | 22.4 | 41 | 15.9 | 42.1 | 0.3 | 41.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-22 | 85 | 494 | 35.3 | 23 | 35 | 16.7 | 39.2 | 0 | 44.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-23 | 47 | 413 | 35 | 23.2 | 38 | 15 | 33.5 | 0.6 | 39.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-24 | 30 | 292 | 37.1 | 24.6 | 30 | 19.9 | 42.5 | 0.1 | 46.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-25 | 34 | 232 | 37.4 | 25.3 | 24 | 17.8 | 43.2 | 0 | 56.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2026-10-26 | 37 | 400 | 37.9 | 24.7 | 29 | 21.1 | 46.1 | 0.2 | 44.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-27 | 25 | 128 | 37.8 | 24.2 | 31 | 18.3 | 40.7 | 0 | 49.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-28 | 52 | 406 | 37 | 25.3 | 40 | 17.4 | 40 | 2.2 | 47.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-29 | 13 | 146 | 36 | 25.5 | 44 | 15.6 | 34.9 | 3.1 | 28 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-30 | 3 | 3 | 34.8 | 24.1 | 41 | 17 | 38.9 | 0.8 | 24.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-31 | 182 | 4,170 | 37.1 | 23.8 | 36 | 16 | 37.1 | 0 | 35.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-01 | 126 | 1,027 | 37 | 24.9 | 33 | 17.8 | 40 | 0.1 | 46.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-02 | 72 | 555 | 38.8 | 25.1 | 32 | 18.9 | 41.4 | 0.3 | 40.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-03 | 67 | 1,329 | 39.4 | 25.3 | 24 | 17.8 | 39.6 | 0.2 | 40.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-04 | 21 | 180 | 39.3 | 27 | 27 | 16.6 | 38.2 | 0.1 | 46.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-05 | 1 | 35 | 39.1 | 26 | 30 | 16.1 | 36.7 | 0 | 44.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-06 | 0 | 0 | 38.3 | 26.7 | 31 | 16.5 | 38.5 | 0.3 | 53.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2026-11-07 | 0 | 0 | 36.9 | 25.6 | 40 | 14.9 | 34.9 | 1.2 | 41.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-08 | 0 | 0 | 37.8 | 25 | 36 | 15.9 | 37.1 | 0.5 | 40.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-09 | 1 | 8 | 38.9 | 25.2 | 31 | 16 | 38.2 | 0.2 | 47.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-10 | 0 | 0 | 37.4 | 26 | 44 | 17.4 | 36.7 | 2.3 | 40.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ECMWF IFS · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 35,513ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 12 Oct 2026 – 9 Nov 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 933
- in a single hotspot: 187 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 414MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
12 Oct9 Nov
9 Nov 2026
How it evolved, day by day
12 Oct
18 Oct
24 Oct
31 Oct
5 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
46km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 10 Nov.
This area had burned before
14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,194 ha in 2016, 2,896 ha in 2017, 1,142 ha in 2018, 1,784 ha in 2019, 138 ha in 2020, 1,214 ha in 2021, 287 ha in 2022, 368 ha in 2023, 1,741 ha in 2024, 675 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,985 ha that had burned before.
- 730 ha Roper Gulf fire, July 2018 7,779 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 647 ha Roper Gulf fire, October 2024 7,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 121 ha Roper Gulf fire, October 2020 9,277 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 started43,109 ha reached on 12 Oct0.2 %
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 2025Built-up area0.16 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.16 hectares of 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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Oct | 35.5 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Oct | 35.6 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Oct | 35.7 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Oct | 35.3 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Oct | 35.8 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Oct | 35.2 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Oct | 35.6 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Oct | 35.6 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Oct | 35.4 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Oct | 35.2 °C | 41 % | 42 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Oct | 35.3 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Oct | 35.0 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Oct | 37.1 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Oct | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Oct | 37.9 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Oct | 37.8 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Oct | 37.0 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 2.2 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Oct | 36.0 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 3.1 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Oct | 34.8 °C | 41 % | 39 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 25 |
| 31 Oct | 37.1 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Nov | 37.0 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Nov | 38.8 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Nov | 39.4 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Nov | 39.3 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Nov | 39.1 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Nov | 38.3 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Nov | 36.9 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 1.2 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Nov | 37.8 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Nov | 38.9 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Nov after | 37.4 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 2.3 mm | Very high 40 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 5 Oct 2026
After · 14 Nov 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 18 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak34 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1039 µg/m³
Optical depth0.41
WHO 15
10 Oct12 Oct14 Oct16 Oct18 Oct
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 · 933Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
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 12 October 2026 to 9 November 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 October 2026 to 6 November 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 35,513 hectares (355.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Roper Gulf (43,109 ha, 0.2 %).
- Is the Roper Gulf fire still active?
- No fire detections since 9 Nov 2026, 04:46 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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 · 13 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 24 October 2026 → 9 November 2026.
- Area: 42,970 → 35,501 ha.
- Area: 41,975 → 42,970 ha.
- Area: 40,200 → 41,975 ha.
- Area: 21,071 → 40,200 ha.
- Area: 19,590 → 21,071 ha.
- Area: 18,309 → 19,590 ha.
- Area: 17,902 → 18,309 ha.
- Area: 16,649 → 17,902 ha.
- Area: 16,113 → 16,649 ha.
- Area: 14,356 → 16,113 ha.
- Area: 13,696 → 14,356 ha.
- Area: 12,084 → 13,696 ha.
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
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 12 October 2026 to 6 November 2026. 933 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
- 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.
- Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.
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.