How long did the Tenterfield fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 December 2019 and 23 December 2019: 20 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 64,913 hectares (649.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tenterfield (50,491 ha, 6.9 %); Kyogle (14,609 ha, 4.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 75 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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 · 2019-12-04 → 2019-12-23

Tenterfield fire, 4 December 2019 Tenterfield, Kyogle

Out · last detection 23 Dec 2019, 04:27 UTC

The fire started on 4 December 2019 in Tenterfield, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 64,913 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 43 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Burnt area: 64,913ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 20days; 4 Dec 2019 – 23 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 4 Dec; 2019
Heat detections: 5,025; in a single hotspot: 218 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 62.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Dec 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111214151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

75km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 6 Jan.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,623 ha in 2016, 16,173 ha in 2017, 609 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,310 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Tenterfield where it started

50,491 ha reached on 4 Dec

6.9 %
Kyogle

14,609 ha reached on 6 Dec

4.1 %

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)
4 Dec	32.0 °C	11 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
5 Dec	32.9 °C	11 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
6 Dec	35.0 °C	12 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Dec	36.2 °C	11 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
8 Dec	31.0 °C	32 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
9 Dec	31.8 °C	35 %	38 km/h	0.4 mm	High 26
10 Dec	36.3 °C	22 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Dec	33.5 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.5 mm	High 26
12 Dec	32.3 °C	39 %	44 km/h	2.2 mm	Moderate 13
13 Dec	25.7 °C	62 %	42 km/h	3.6 mm	Very low 4
14 Dec	33.7 °C	22 %	48 km/h	1.2 mm	Moderate 18
15 Dec	36.1 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.8 mm	High 26
16 Dec	37.5 °C	15 %	75 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
17 Dec	28.3 °C	38 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Dec	29.0 °C	28 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Dec	34.6 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
20 Dec	34.8 °C	27 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
21 Dec	37.6 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Dec	34.3 °C	35 %	55 km/h	0.8 mm	High 28
23 Dec	28.7 °C	50 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 20
24 Dec after	28.8 °C	52 %	39 km/h	21.6 mm	Very low 1
25 Dec after	23.3 °C	72 %	47 km/h	11.1 mm	Very low 0
26 Dec after	26.7 °C	43 %	45 km/h	5.0 mm	Very low 1
27 Dec after	26.7 °C	38 %	50 km/h	0.7 mm	Low 5
28 Dec after	26.4 °C	42 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 7
29 Dec after	29.5 °C	36 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
30 Dec after	29.7 °C	34 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
31 Dec after	30.9 °C	35 %	30 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 12
1 Jan after	33.9 °C	27 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
2 Jan after	33.5 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
3 Jan after	33.2 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
4 Jan after	36.4 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
5 Jan after	37.2 °C	19 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Jan after	32.3 °C	34 %	44 km/h	2.3 mm	Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Nov 2019

After · 30 Dec 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 · 5,025Every 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 4 December 2019 and 23 December 2019: 20 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 64,913 hectares (649.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tenterfield (50,491 ha, 6.9 %); Kyogle (14,609 ha, 4.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 75 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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