West Arnhem fire, 10 June 2016 West Arnhem
The fire started on 10 June 2016 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,014 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 3481th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 425 in Australia in 2016, of 427.
- Burnt area
- 5,014ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 10 Jun 2016 – 17 Jun 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 10 Jun
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 142
- in a single hotspot: 41 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 30 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
-
West Arnhem where it started5,028 ha reached on 10 Jun0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Jun | 29.9 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Jun | 30.2 °C | 50 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Jun | 30.0 °C | 50 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Jun | 29.6 °C | 56 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Jun | 29.6 °C | 60 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Jun | 29.4 °C | 62 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Jun | 28.8 °C | 63 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Jun | 28.9 °C | 56 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Jun after | 28.0 °C | 71 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Jun after | 28.0 °C | 70 % | 19 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 11 |
| 20 Jun after | 28.4 °C | 54 % | 41 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Jun after | 27.3 °C | 47 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Jun after | 27.3 °C | 57 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Jun after | 27.4 °C | 68 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Jun after | 28.5 °C | 64 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Jun after | 28.1 °C | 65 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 26 Jun after | 27.5 °C | 68 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Jun after | 28.4 °C | 63 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 142Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 39,113 haWest Arnhem3 June 2026 · 20 days · 13 km away
- 34,526 haWest Arnhem5 June 2018 · 37 days · 14 km away
- 20,623 haWest Arnhem5 July 2016 · 7 days · 18 km away
- 21,073 haWest Arnhem26 June 2020 · 38 days · 24 km away
- 21,079 haWest Arnhem10 September 2019 · 11 days · 32 km away
- 44,036 haWest Arnhem1 September 2017 · 24 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the West Arnhem fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 June 2016 and 17 June 2016: 8 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 5,014 hectares (50.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered West Arnhem (5,028 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.2 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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.