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Tenterfield fire, September 2026 Southern Downs, Tenterfield

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2026, 02:47 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2026 in Tenterfield, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,160 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 125th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 809 in Australia in 2026, of 859.

Burnt area
5,160ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
1 Sept 2026 – 27 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
1 Sept
2026
Heat detections
593
in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start
10
Low · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12345678101112131415161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
55km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39 ha in 2016, 1,618 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Southern Downs
    4,137 ha reached on 3 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. Tenterfield where it started
    1,059 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
1 Sept 19.4 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
2 Sept 19.0 °C 46 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
3 Sept 24.5 °C 32 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Sept 22.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Sept 27.4 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Sept 24.9 °C 14 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Sept 21.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Sept 18.5 °C 43 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Sept 19.5 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
10 Sept 16.6 °C 40 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Sept 17.5 °C 51 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Sept 18.1 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Sept 20.1 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Sept 22.7 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Sept 23.1 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Sept 23.2 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Sept 18.8 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Sept 21.5 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Sept 25.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Sept 27.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 27.5 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Sept 24.2 °C 32 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Sept 19.8 °C 54 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Sept 21.6 °C 45 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Sept 21.2 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
26 Sept 23.4 °C 32 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Sept 24.6 °C 41 % 28 km/h 2.2 mm Low 8
28 Sept after 16.1 °C 78 % 54 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 11
29 Sept after 16.7 °C 53 % 55 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 13
30 Sept after 19.5 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
1 Oct after 23.6 °C 26 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Oct after 24.5 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
3 Oct after 24.0 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
4 Oct after 25.0 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Oct after 20.9 °C 55 % 30 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2026
After · 4 Oct 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 21 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 229 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 111: 7.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak229 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM10232 µg/m³
Optical depth0.85
3031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 593Every 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 1 September 2026 and 27 September 2026: 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 5,160 hectares (51.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Southern Downs (4,137 ha, 0.6 %); Tenterfield (1,059 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Tenterfield fire still active?
No fire detections since 27 Sept 2026, 02:47 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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
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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.