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AU · Australia · –

Unincorporated NT fire, 14 July 2023 Unincorporated NT

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2023, 04:28 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2023 in Unincorporated NT, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 41 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,694 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This entry is probably a savanna fire in Australia’s tropical north, not a bushfire like those in the south of the country. Millions of hectares of northern savanna and grassland burn every year: much of it in burns lit on purpose early in the dry season (traditional fire management, parks and cattle stations), the rest in grass fires that return to the same ground every few years. This is our assumption, based on the location; it is not confirmed. That is why it is left out of the wildfire rankings.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Unincorporated NT · 2017Unincorporated NT · 2016Unincorporated NT · 2018Unincorporated NT · 2020

Burnt area
9,694ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
41days
14 Jul 2023 – 23 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
14 Jul
2023
Heat detections
397
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
67MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul23 Aug
23 Aug 2023

How it evolved, day by day

14 Jul 2023 · 7 MW · 1 15 Jul 2023 · 52 MW · 5 18 Jul 2023 · 4 MW · 2 19 Jul 2023 · 113 MW · 14 20 Jul 2023 · 94 MW · 11 21 Jul 2023 · 48 MW · 6 22 Jul 2023 · 90 MW · 6 23 Jul 2023 · 10 MW · 6 24 Jul 2023 · 77 MW · 18 25 Jul 2023 · 51 MW · 14 26 Jul 2023 · 83 MW · 7 27 Jul 2023 · 63 MW · 10 28 Jul 2023 · 95 MW · 5 29 Jul 2023 · 28 MW · 6 30 Jul 2023 · 76 MW · 13 31 Jul 2023 · 32 MW · 7 1 Aug 2023 · 78 MW · 14 2 Aug 2023 · 27 MW · 5 3 Aug 2023 · 21 MW · 4 4 Aug 2023 · 2 MW · 1 5 Aug 2023 · 39 MW · 7 6 Aug 2023 · 36 MW · 11 7 Aug 2023 · 107 MW · 17 8 Aug 2023 · 434 MW · 35 9 Aug 2023 · 117 MW · 31 10 Aug 2023 · 152 MW · 31 11 Aug 2023 · 8 MW · 4 12 Aug 2023 · 195 MW · 30 13 Aug 2023 · 115 MW · 14 14 Aug 2023 · 10 MW · 3 15 Aug 2023 · 71 MW · 17 16 Aug 2023 · 103 MW · 21 17 Aug 2023 · 37 MW · 4 18 Aug 2023 · 27 MW · 6 19 Aug 2023 · 8 MW · 2 20 Aug 2023 · 22 MW · 6 21 Aug 2023 · 10 MW · 2 23 Aug 2023 · 9 MW · 1
14 Jul 24 Jul 1 Aug 8 Aug 17 Aug

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
50km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,843 ha in 2016, 7,130 ha in 2017, 7,142 ha in 2018, 4,525 ha in 2019, 6,040 ha in 2020, 52 ha in 2021, 3,235 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,664 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6.1% of the area of London (97 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Unincorporated NT where it started
    9,468 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.5 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 34 % of the area in Australia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
14 Jul 32.1 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jul 32.5 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
16 Jul 31.4 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jul 32.0 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
18 Jul 32.5 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Jul 31.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jul 31.4 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jul 32.0 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Jul 32.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul 28.9 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jul 26.0 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Jul 25.9 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jul 27.2 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jul 30.2 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Jul 31.7 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul 33.3 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
30 Jul 33.7 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul 33.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug 33.4 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Aug 32.6 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Aug 33.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Aug 31.7 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Aug 33.2 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Aug 32.5 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug 31.7 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Aug 31.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Aug 33.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug 32.6 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug 32.0 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Aug 32.6 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Aug 32.8 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Aug 32.7 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Aug 32.3 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Aug 31.8 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Aug 31.5 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Aug 32.6 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug 34.2 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Aug 32.8 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 32.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 33.2 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 34.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Aug after 34.1 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Aug after 34.8 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Aug after 34.2 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug after 34.0 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug after 33.8 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Aug after 34.1 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Aug after 34.2 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug after 34.0 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept after 33.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept after 33.5 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2023
After · 30 Aug 2023

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 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1026 µg/m³
Optical depth0.39
17 Jul25 Jul2 Aug10 Aug18 Aug
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 · 397Every 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 Unincorporated NT fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 July 2023 to 23 August 2023 (41 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 July 2023 to 20 August 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,694 hectares (96.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Unincorporated NT (9,468 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 20 August 2023 → 23 August 2023.
  2. Start date: 19 July 2023 → 14 July 2023.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 July 2023 to 20 August 2023. 397 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
  • Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.