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West Arnhem fire, 9 May 2018 West Arnhem, Roper Gulf

Out · last detection 9 Jun 2018, 16:18 UTC

The fire started on 9 May 2018 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 68,597 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 111th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3496 with a page). Number 20 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Burnt area
68,597ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
9 May 2018 – 8 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
9 May
2018
Heat detections
3,803
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
23.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jun 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 May8 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345679

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
61km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,166 ha in 2016, 4,009 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,331 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. West Arnhem where it started
    43,163 ha reached on 9 May
    0.9 %
  2. Roper Gulf
    25,727 ha reached on 12 May
    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)
9 May 31.9 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 May 32.8 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 May 31.2 °C 25 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 May 29.0 °C 26 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 May 28.2 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 May 28.1 °C 21 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 May 28.1 °C 20 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 May 27.8 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 May 27.5 °C 21 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 May 28.2 °C 30 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 May 28.4 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 May 29.2 °C 34 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 May 31.0 °C 35 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 May 29.2 °C 27 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 May 29.9 °C 28 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 May 30.8 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 May 32.2 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 May 31.7 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 May 30.5 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 May 30.8 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 May 29.9 °C 28 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 May 29.9 °C 33 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 May 31.5 °C 32 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jun 29.6 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Jun 29.1 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Jun 28.3 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Jun 27.0 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Jun 26.8 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Jun 28.0 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Jun 29.0 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jun 29.1 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Jun after 30.7 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Jun after 30.5 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Jun after 31.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Jun after 31.6 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jun after 31.4 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Jun after 31.2 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jun after 29.8 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Jun after 30.0 °C 33 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jun after 28.6 °C 23 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jun after 27.9 °C 29 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jun after 29.7 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Jun after 30.7 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jun after 29.2 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Jun after 28.6 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jun after 28.3 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 May 2018
After · 15 Jun 2018

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 · 3,803Every 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 West Arnhem fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 May 2018 and 8 June 2018: 31 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 68,597 hectares (686.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: West Arnhem (43,163 ha, 0.9 %); Roper Gulf (25,727 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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

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.