How long did the Upper Hunter fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 November 2019 and 21 December 2019: 26 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 17,487 hectares (174.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Upper Hunter (12,174 ha, 1.5 %); Mid-Western (5,393 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 42.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 77 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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 · 2019-11-26 → 2019-12-21

Upper Hunter fire, November 2019 Upper Hunter, Mid-Western

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2019, 14:42 UTC

The fire started on 26 November 2019 in Upper Hunter, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,487 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 43th largest in New South Wales since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 189 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Burnt area: 17,487ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 26days; 26 Nov 2019 – 21 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 26 Nov; 2019
Heat detections: 2,065; in a single hotspot: 463 MW
Danger at start: 28; High · FWI index
Energy released: 31.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Dec 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Nov21 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930123456789101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

43°high

77km/h · peak gust

6%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Upper Hunter where it started

12,174 ha reached on 26 Nov

1.5 %
Mid-Western

5,393 ha reached on 29 Nov

0.6 %

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)
26 Nov	32.4 °C	19 %	77 km/h	4.3 mm	High 28
27 Nov	28.8 °C	14 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
28 Nov	32.9 °C	13 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
29 Nov	35.0 °C	11 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
30 Nov	32.9 °C	20 %	76 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Dec	28.6 °C	15 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
2 Dec	19.0 °C	31 %	76 km/h	2.3 mm	Moderate 17
3 Dec	26.5 °C	20 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Dec	29.6 °C	13 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
5 Dec	32.8 °C	11 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
6 Dec	33.1 °C	14 %	73 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
7 Dec	32.5 °C	6 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
8 Dec	32.4 °C	21 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
9 Dec	36.3 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
10 Dec	40.1 °C	8 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
11 Dec	33.9 °C	28 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Dec	31.8 °C	22 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
13 Dec	30.1 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
14 Dec	33.6 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
15 Dec	34.1 °C	13 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
16 Dec	35.0 °C	12 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
17 Dec	30.6 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
18 Dec	34.5 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Dec	39.8 °C	7 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
20 Dec	36.7 °C	22 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
21 Dec	42.8 °C	9 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
22 Dec after	27.7 °C	40 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Dec after	29.1 °C	41 %	50 km/h	0.1 mm	High 35
24 Dec after	33.2 °C	28 %	54 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41
25 Dec after	31.2 °C	31 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
26 Dec after	33.6 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
27 Dec after	35.7 °C	16 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Dec after	38.0 °C	6 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Dec after	39.3 °C	4 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
30 Dec after	39.8 °C	7 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
31 Dec after	40.4 °C	8 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Nov 2019

After · 28 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 · 2,065Every 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 Upper Hunter fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 November 2019 and 21 December 2019: 26 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 17,487 hectares (174.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Upper Hunter (12,174 ha, 1.5 %); Mid-Western (5,393 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 42.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 77 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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 ↗

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