How long did the Tenterfield fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 October 2019 and 22 November 2019: 27 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 70,669 hectares (706.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tenterfield (59,289 ha, 8.1 %); Glen Innes Severn (11,630 ha, 2.1 %); Inverell (182 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 73 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.

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 · 2019-10-27 → 2019-11-22

Tenterfield fire, October 2019 Tenterfield, Glen Innes Severn, Inverell

Out · last detection 22 Nov 2019, 15:25 UTC

The fire started on 27 October 2019 in Tenterfield, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 70,669 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 37 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Burnt area: 70,669ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 27days; 27 Oct 2019 – 22 Nov 2019
Municipalities hit: 3; local government areas
Started on: 27 Oct; 2019
Heat detections: 7,578; in a single hotspot: 560 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 136.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 22 Nov 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Oct22 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

73km/h · peak gust

5%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.0 mm on 24 Nov.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 302 ha in 2016, 1,857 ha in 2017, 512 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,495 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Tenterfield where it started

59,289 ha reached on 27 Oct

8.1 %
Glen Innes Severn

11,630 ha reached on 28 Oct

2.1 %
Inverell

182 ha reached on 8 Nov

0.0 %

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)
20 Oct	22.0 °C	17 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 Oct	21.5 °C	24 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
22 Oct	22.1 °C	28 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
23 Oct	24.0 °C	17 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
24 Oct	24.1 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	High 26
25 Oct	23.8 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.2 mm	High 22
26 Oct	26.5 °C	24 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
27 Oct	26.2 °C	10 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
28 Oct	25.6 °C	17 %	56 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 40
29 Oct	25.0 °C	21 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
30 Oct	21.7 °C	38 %	35 km/h	0.5 mm	High 23
31 Oct	22.4 °C	34 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
1 Nov	23.7 °C	26 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
2 Nov	23.2 °C	32 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
3 Nov	25.3 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.9 mm	High 22
4 Nov	22.7 °C	33 %	52 km/h	3.7 mm	Low 7
5 Nov	16.9 °C	21 %	72 km/h	0.5 mm	High 23
6 Nov	22.7 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
7 Nov	26.8 °C	13 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
8 Nov	27.2 °C	10 %	72 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
9 Nov	18.9 °C	11 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Nov	21.9 °C	18 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Nov	25.2 °C	13 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
12 Nov	28.8 °C	9 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
13 Nov	26.0 °C	5 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
14 Nov	24.8 °C	10 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
15 Nov	26.8 °C	12 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
16 Nov	29.0 °C	11 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
17 Nov	26.9 °C	14 %	73 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
18 Nov	25.5 °C	20 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
19 Nov	28.9 °C	15 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Nov	33.4 °C	10 %	66 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
21 Nov	28.8 °C	24 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
22 Nov	29.8 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
23 Nov after	30.0 °C	23 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	High 36
24 Nov after	28.1 °C	33 %	53 km/h	12.0 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 20 Oct 2019

After · 29 Nov 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 · 7,578Every 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 Tenterfield fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 October 2019 and 22 November 2019: 27 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 70,669 hectares (706.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tenterfield (59,289 ha, 8.1 %); Glen Innes Severn (11,630 ha, 2.1 %); Inverell (182 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 73 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
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 ↗

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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