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Tenterfield fire, September 2017 Tenterfield, Kyogle

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2017, 15:44 UTC

The fire started on 18 September 2017 in Tenterfield, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,282 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 99th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 628 in Australia in 2017, of 862.

Burnt area
6,282ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
18 Sept 2017 – 28 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
18 Sept
2017
Heat detections
529
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
74km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.0 mm on 1 Oct.

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
    5,624 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Kyogle
    673 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
11 Sept 26.4 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept 28.0 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Sept 29.9 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Sept 20.6 °C 28 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 22.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept 23.7 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept 23.6 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Sept 26.0 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept 28.9 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Sept 26.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 27.3 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept 28.9 °C 35 % 57 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
23 Sept 32.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept 34.0 °C 22 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Sept 32.1 °C 25 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Sept 31.2 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept 27.5 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Sept 33.5 °C 25 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept after 30.5 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Sept after 26.0 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
1 Oct after 15.0 °C 66 % 26 km/h 9.0 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Sept 2017
After · 5 Oct 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 · 529Every 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 18 September 2017 and 28 September 2017: 11 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 6,282 hectares (62.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tenterfield (5,624 ha, 0.8 %); Kyogle (673 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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

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.