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Shoalhaven fire, November 2019 Shoalhaven, Queanbeyan-Palerang, Eurobodalla

Out · last detection 10 Jan 2020, 03:48 UTC

The fire started on 26 November 2019 in Shoalhaven, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 46 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 151,942 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 9th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 14 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Compare with…
Burnt area
151,942ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
46days
26 Nov 2019 – 10 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
4
local government areas
Started on
26 Nov
2019
Heat detections
14,269
in a single hotspot: 718 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
5.7GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Nov10 Jan
10 Jan 2020

How it evolved, day by day

26 Nov 2019 · 6,318 MW · 357 27 Nov 2019 · 1,968 MW · 285 28 Nov 2019 · 2,986 MW · 163 29 Nov 2019 · 350 MW · 81 30 Nov 2019 · 3,581 MW · 134 1 Dec 2019 · 5,306 MW · 196 2 Dec 2019 · 6,198 MW · 1214 3 Dec 2019 · 45,336 MW · 1058 4 Dec 2019 · 7,553 MW · 844 5 Dec 2019 · 10,796 MW · 1132 6 Dec 2019 · 1,029 MW · 242 7 Dec 2019 · 104 MW · 32 9 Dec 2019 · 3,115 MW · 460 10 Dec 2019 · 1,635 MW · 241 11 Dec 2019 · 721 MW · 43 12 Dec 2019 · 729 MW · 58 14 Dec 2019 · 50 MW · 7 15 Dec 2019 · 676 MW · 161 16 Dec 2019 · 749 MW · 230 17 Dec 2019 · 2,769 MW · 490 18 Dec 2019 · 4,160 MW · 589 19 Dec 2019 · 26,208 MW · 1619 20 Dec 2019 · 7,820 MW · 724 21 Dec 2019 · 32,962 MW · 533 22 Dec 2019 · 340 MW · 149 23 Dec 2019 · 3,969 MW · 177 24 Dec 2019 · 26 MW · 4 25 Dec 2019 · 989 MW · 285 26 Dec 2019 · 3,157 MW · 345 27 Dec 2019 · 3,097 MW · 369 28 Dec 2019 · 6,052 MW · 468 29 Dec 2019 · 806 MW · 133 30 Dec 2019 · 17,806 MW · 797 31 Dec 2019 · 169 MW · 101 1 Jan 2020 · 1,931 MW · 101 2 Jan 2020 · 896 MW · 76 3 Jan 2020 · 1,689 MW · 60 4 Jan 2020 · 13,545 MW · 287 5 Jan 2020 · 5 MW · 5 10 Jan 2020 · 1,458 MW · 19
26 Nov 2 Dec 3 Dec 9 Dec 16 Dec 22 Dec 28 Dec 3 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
72km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 11 Jan.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,287 ha in 2016, 1,939 ha in 2017, 2,949 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned almost the same area as London (1,519 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. Shoalhaven where it started
    108,937 ha reached on 26 Nov
    24 %
  2. Queanbeyan-Palerang
    32,152 ha reached on 4 Dec
    6.0 %
  3. Eurobodalla
    11,305 ha reached on 26 Nov
    3.3 %
  4. Goulburn Mulwaree
    98 ha reached on 3 Jan
    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 2020
Built-up area53 ha
Residents≈ 950

Inside the perimeter there were about 53 hectares of built-up land and about 950 residents (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)
26 Nov 28.9 °C 27 % 72 km/h 0.6 mm High 26
27 Nov 20.1 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
28 Nov 23.5 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
29 Nov 25.5 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
30 Nov 20.9 °C 54 % 59 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 3
1 Dec 23.5 °C 29 % 54 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
2 Dec 18.8 °C 31 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
3 Dec 23.6 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Dec 21.6 °C 43 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Dec 28.1 °C 17 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Dec 22.8 °C 52 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
7 Dec 21.9 °C 54 % 44 km/h 1.4 mm Low 7
8 Dec 19.8 °C 69 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Low 6
9 Dec 26.3 °C 52 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
10 Dec 23.3 °C 57 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
11 Dec 18.7 °C 65 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 11
12 Dec 19.1 °C 66 % 43 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 4
13 Dec 17.2 °C 74 % 31 km/h 4.8 mm Very low 0
14 Dec 23.5 °C 53 % 43 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 3
15 Dec 25.1 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm Low 9
16 Dec 19.8 °C 66 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
17 Dec 22.2 °C 55 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
18 Dec 27.5 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
19 Dec 32.1 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Dec 23.3 °C 57 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
21 Dec 32.7 °C 34 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Dec 17.5 °C 65 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Dec 22.9 °C 54 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Dec 21.6 °C 72 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
25 Dec 24.2 °C 65 % 46 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 5
26 Dec 26.4 °C 56 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
27 Dec 26.2 °C 54 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
28 Dec 31.4 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Dec 27.4 °C 54 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
30 Dec 32.0 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 Dec 35.5 °C 18 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Jan 20.2 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
2 Jan 21.5 °C 59 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Jan 26.1 °C 62 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
4 Jan 37.2 °C 27 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Jan 21.4 °C 54 % 50 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
6 Jan 19.0 °C 78 % 36 km/h 4.1 mm Very low 1
7 Jan 25.1 °C 68 % 32 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 5
8 Jan 21.3 °C 73 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Low 6
9 Jan 21.4 °C 78 % 34 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 2
10 Jan 30.7 °C 49 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
11 Jan after 21.0 °C 57 % 71 km/h 2.9 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Nov 2019
After · 17 Jan 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 · 14,269Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Shoalhaven fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 November 2019 to 10 January 2020 (46 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 November 2019 to 4 January 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 151,942 hectares (1,519.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Shoalhaven (108,937 ha, 24 %); Queanbeyan-Palerang (32,152 ha, 6.0 %); Eurobodalla (11,305 ha, 3.3 %); Goulburn Mulwaree (98 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 72 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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: 4 January 2020 → 10 January 2020.

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 26 November 2019 to 4 January 2020. 14,269 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.