How long did the Southern Downs fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 September 2019 and 10 October 2019: 13 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 10,678 hectares (106.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Southern Downs (9,428 ha, 1.3 %); Scenic Rim (1,261 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 75 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.

AU · Australia · 2019-09-28 → 2019-10-10

Southern Downs fire, September 2019 Southern Downs, Scenic Rim

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2019, 15:31 UTC

The fire started on 28 September 2019 in Southern Downs, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,678 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 699th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 358 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Burnt area: 10,678ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 13days; 28 Sept 2019 – 10 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 28 Sept; 2019
Heat detections: 729; in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start: 14; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 5.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Oct 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Sept10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2829301234678910

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

75km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 527 ha in 2017, 30 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

Southern Downs where it started

9,428 ha reached on 28 Sept

1.3 %
Scenic Rim

1,261 ha reached on 8 Oct

0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

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)
28 Sept	24.1 °C	33 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
29 Sept	24.8 °C	18 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
30 Sept	25.6 °C	18 %	46 km/h	1.5 mm	Moderate 20
1 Oct	17.4 °C	55 %	45 km/h	1.5 mm	Low 7
2 Oct	21.2 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
3 Oct	25.0 °C	21 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
4 Oct	27.1 °C	15 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
5 Oct	27.8 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
6 Oct	27.5 °C	26 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
7 Oct	32.2 °C	10 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
8 Oct	31.6 °C	18 %	75 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
9 Oct	22.9 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.1 mm	High 35
10 Oct	19.1 °C	28 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
11 Oct after	16.0 °C	46 %	28 km/h	9.1 mm	Very low 1
12 Oct after	15.5 °C	53 %	34 km/h	13.2 mm	Very low 0
13 Oct after	18.5 °C	40 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
14 Oct after	24.5 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
15 Oct after	23.7 °C	44 %	24 km/h	2.9 mm	Very low 2
16 Oct after	28.5 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
17 Oct after	29.9 °C	33 %	69 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 15
18 Oct after	28.2 °C	7 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Oct after	26.0 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
20 Oct after	23.5 °C	28 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
21 Oct after	21.6 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
22 Oct after	22.7 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
23 Oct after	25.0 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
24 Oct after	26.9 °C	20 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
25 Oct after	26.2 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
26 Oct after	28.3 °C	24 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 Oct after	29.9 °C	13 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Sept 2019

After · 17 Oct 2019

Before After

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 · 729Every 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

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Southern Downs fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 September 2019 and 10 October 2019: 13 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 10,678 hectares (106.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Southern Downs (9,428 ha, 1.3 %); Scenic Rim (1,261 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 75 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned