Tenterfield fire, 12 February 2019 Tenterfield, Southern Downs
The fire started on 12 February 2019 in Tenterfield, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,426 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 35th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 139 in Australia in 2019, of 802.
- Burnt area
- 23,426ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 12 Feb 2019 – 20 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 12 Feb
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 1,814
- in a single hotspot: 509 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 34.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 21 Feb.
This area had burned before
13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,359 ha in 2017, 1,680 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Tenterfield where it started13,758 ha reached on 12 Feb1.9 %
-
9,798 ha reached on 12 Feb1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Feb | 31.1 °C | 15 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Feb | 32.3 °C | 15 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Feb | 21.6 °C | 52 % | 58 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Feb | 24.1 °C | 33 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Feb | 23.9 °C | 37 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Feb | 27.6 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Feb | 29.7 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Feb | 32.9 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Feb | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Feb after | 26.2 °C | 51 % | 48 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 12 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 1,814Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,413 haSouthern Downs26 October 2023 · 7 days · 11 km away
- 8,347 haTenterfield13 February 2019 · 8 days · 16 km away
- 9,347 haTenterfield26 October 2023 · 8 days · 30 km away
- 8,469 haTenterfieldAugust 2017 · 23 days · 36 km away
- 64,913 haTenterfield4 December 2019 · 20 days · 39 km away
- 70,910 haTenterfieldSeptember 2019 · 18 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tenterfield fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 February 2019 and 20 February 2019: 9 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 23,426 hectares (234.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tenterfield (13,758 ha, 1.9 %); Southern Downs (9,798 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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
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.