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AU · Australia · –

Victoria Daly fire, 28 June 2016 Victoria Daly

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2016, 04:20 UTC

The fire started on 28 June 2016 in Victoria Daly, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 48 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 110,082 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

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.

Burnt area
110,082ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
48days
28 Jun 2016 – 14 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
28 Jun
2016
Heat detections
3,877
in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
525MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jun14 Aug
14 Aug 2016

How it evolved, day by day

28 Jun 2016 · 210 MW · 23 29 Jun 2016 · 960 MW · 103 30 Jun 2016 · 615 MW · 117 1 Jul 2016 · 1,463 MW · 228 2 Jul 2016 · 4,859 MW · 415 3 Jul 2016 · 1,570 MW · 208 4 Jul 2016 · 1,100 MW · 252 5 Jul 2016 · 987 MW · 190 6 Jul 2016 · 691 MW · 162 7 Jul 2016 · 673 MW · 146 8 Jul 2016 · 1,540 MW · 159 9 Jul 2016 · 107 MW · 55 10 Jul 2016 · 534 MW · 73 11 Jul 2016 · 157 MW · 32 12 Jul 2016 · 55 MW · 12 13 Jul 2016 · 3 MW · 2 14 Jul 2016 · 191 MW · 30 15 Jul 2016 · 117 MW · 58 16 Jul 2016 · 173 MW · 45 17 Jul 2016 · 92 MW · 32 18 Jul 2016 · 138 MW · 38 19 Jul 2016 · 264 MW · 53 20 Jul 2016 · 120 MW · 52 21 Jul 2016 · 221 MW · 33 22 Jul 2016 · 207 MW · 39 23 Jul 2016 · 753 MW · 62 25 Jul 2016 · 90 MW · 29 26 Jul 2016 · 446 MW · 43 27 Jul 2016 · 363 MW · 72 28 Jul 2016 · 300 MW · 62 29 Jul 2016 · 129 MW · 52 30 Jul 2016 · 1,414 MW · 137 31 Jul 2016 · 451 MW · 105 1 Aug 2016 · 389 MW · 106 2 Aug 2016 · 421 MW · 95 3 Aug 2016 · 242 MW · 72 4 Aug 2016 · 306 MW · 80 5 Aug 2016 · 185 MW · 84 6 Aug 2016 · 633 MW · 106 7 Aug 2016 · 599 MW · 60 8 Aug 2016 · 225 MW · 38 9 Aug 2016 · 176 MW · 43 10 Aug 2016 · 274 MW · 46 11 Aug 2016 · 124 MW · 12 12 Aug 2016 · 112 MW · 11 13 Aug 2016 · 3 MW · 2 14 Aug 2016 · 11 MW · 3
2 Jul 18 Jul 29 Jul 8 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

33°high
55km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 70% of the area of London (1,101 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. Victoria Daly where it started
    110,966 ha reached on 28 Jun
    0.7 %

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 2015
Built-up area3.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.1 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
27 Jun 31.7 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jun 30.9 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Jun 29.6 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Jun 30.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jul 30.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jul 29.6 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Jul 29.4 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Jul 30.9 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jul 31.5 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jul 30.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Jul 29.8 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Jul 30.4 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Jul 31.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Jul 31.8 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jul 31.3 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Jul 31.4 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Jul 24.9 °C 39 % 55 km/h 0.6 mm Extreme 53
14 Jul 25.1 °C 38 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Jul 23.5 °C 30 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jul 24.4 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jul 25.6 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jul 27.0 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Jul 28.6 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jul 30.0 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Jul 31.3 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul 32.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 32.9 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jul 33.1 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jul 32.9 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jul 31.5 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jul 30.3 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jul 29.0 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jul 29.7 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Jul 30.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Jul 30.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Aug 31.4 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Aug 30.9 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
3 Aug 27.3 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
4 Aug 25.9 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
5 Aug 27.1 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
6 Aug 28.7 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Aug 30.4 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Aug 31.3 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Aug 31.9 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Aug 31.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Aug 32.9 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug 32.4 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Aug 31.8 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Aug 32.5 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Aug after 32.6 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Aug after 32.9 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Aug after 31.8 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Aug after 32.1 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Aug after 32.7 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Aug after 30.5 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug after 29.1 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
22 Aug after 29.5 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Aug after 30.0 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 41
24 Aug after 30.9 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jun 2016
After · 21 Aug 2016

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 · 3,877Every 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 Victoria Daly fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 June 2016 and 14 August 2016: 48 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 110,082 hectares (1,100.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Victoria Daly (110,966 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,877 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 2015, 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.