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Tenterfield fire, August 2017 Tenterfield

Out · last detection 31 Aug 2017, 03:13 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2017 in Tenterfield, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,469 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 437 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area
8,469ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
8 Aug 2017 – 30 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
8 Aug
2017
Heat detections
690
in a single hotspot: 220 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415161718192021222324252728293031

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
70km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Tenterfield where it started
    8,521 ha reached on 8 Aug
    1.2 %

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)
8 Aug 14.8 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
9 Aug 17.6 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
10 Aug 19.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Aug 21.9 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Aug 20.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Aug 20.0 °C 17 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Aug 19.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Aug 22.3 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Aug 24.7 °C 23 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug 21.2 °C 35 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Aug 15.4 °C 23 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug 11.8 °C 21 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Aug 13.9 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Aug 14.3 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
22 Aug 19.1 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Aug 19.5 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
24 Aug 19.2 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
25 Aug 13.3 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 17
26 Aug 15.8 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
27 Aug 16.3 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Aug 13.9 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Aug 15.5 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Aug 16.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 Aug after 16.8 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Sept after 17.0 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Sept after 19.5 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Sept after 21.8 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept after 20.9 °C 21 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept after 17.9 °C 20 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept after 17.5 °C 19 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Sept after 16.8 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Sept after 16.8 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Sept after 17.9 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Sept after 19.5 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2017
After · 6 Sept 2017

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 · 690Every 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 Tenterfield fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2017 and 30 August 2017: 23 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 8,469 hectares (84.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tenterfield (8,521 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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

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.

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.