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West Arnhem fire, 5 June 2018 West Arnhem

Out · last detection 11 Jul 2018, 16:17 UTC

The fire started on 5 June 2018 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,526 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 300th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3511 with a page). Number 56 in Australia in 2018, of 923.

Compare with…

Suggestions: West Arnhem · 2016West Arnhem · 2016West Arnhem · 2017West Arnhem · 2026

Burnt area
34,526ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
40days
5 Jun 2018 – 14 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
5 Jun
2018
Heat detections
1,779
in a single hotspot: 178 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
356MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jun14 Jul
11 Jul 2018

How it evolved, day by day

5 Jun 2018 · 18 MW · 5 6 Jun 2018 · 28 MW · 5 7 Jun 2018 · 13 MW · 2 8 Jun 2018 · 6 MW · 5 9 Jun 2018 · 114 MW · 12 10 Jun 2018 · 293 MW · 29 11 Jun 2018 · 654 MW · 36 12 Jun 2018 · 165 MW · 16 13 Jun 2018 · 750 MW · 82 14 Jun 2018 · 273 MW · 76 15 Jun 2018 · 1,021 MW · 74 16 Jun 2018 · 2,233 MW · 168 17 Jun 2018 · 867 MW · 146 18 Jun 2018 · 501 MW · 96 19 Jun 2018 · 339 MW · 115 20 Jun 2018 · 668 MW · 83 21 Jun 2018 · 849 MW · 118 22 Jun 2018 · 855 MW · 89 23 Jun 2018 · 251 MW · 56 24 Jun 2018 · 498 MW · 109 25 Jun 2018 · 257 MW · 45 26 Jun 2018 · 265 MW · 55 27 Jun 2018 · 454 MW · 52 28 Jun 2018 · 220 MW · 34 29 Jun 2018 · 166 MW · 23 30 Jun 2018 · 70 MW · 33 1 Jul 2018 · 97 MW · 33 2 Jul 2018 · 246 MW · 38 3 Jul 2018 · 332 MW · 35 4 Jul 2018 · 108 MW · 21 5 Jul 2018 · 84 MW · 21 6 Jul 2018 · 87 MW · 18 7 Jul 2018 · 58 MW · 10 8 Jul 2018 · 189 MW · 23 9 Jul 2018 · 95 MW · 11 10 Jul 2018 · 4 MW · 2 11 Jul 2018 · 28 MW · 3
5 Jun 11 Jun 16 Jun 17 Jun 23 Jun 29 Jun 5 Jul 11 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
46km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 22,579 ha in 2016, 3,872 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 24,446 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (345 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. West Arnhem where it started
    34,345 ha reached on 5 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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)
5 Jun 25.7 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Jun 25.5 °C 60 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Jun 25.8 °C 60 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Jun 26.3 °C 67 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Jun 26.8 °C 65 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Jun 26.3 °C 64 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Jun 26.2 °C 66 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
12 Jun 26.5 °C 69 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Jun 26.1 °C 70 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Jun 26.3 °C 72 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
15 Jun 26.4 °C 66 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 Jun 27.1 °C 61 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Jun 27.3 °C 49 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Jun 26.9 °C 53 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Jun 26.6 °C 57 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jun 26.4 °C 59 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Jun 26.5 °C 62 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Jun 26.6 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Jun 26.1 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Jun 26.1 °C 59 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Jun 26.2 °C 67 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Jun 26.6 °C 69 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Jun 26.9 °C 61 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Jun 26.6 °C 56 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Jun 26.2 °C 68 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Jun 26.8 °C 69 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
1 Jul 27.2 °C 65 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Jul 27.2 °C 68 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Jul 27.0 °C 67 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Jul 26.7 °C 57 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Jul 26.5 °C 61 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Jul 26.3 °C 58 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Jul 26.0 °C 57 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Jul 26.1 °C 49 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Jul 26.1 °C 61 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Jul 26.2 °C 59 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Jul 25.5 °C 59 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Jul 25.1 °C 63 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Jul 25.3 °C 60 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Jul 25.4 °C 59 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
15 Jul after 25.7 °C 63 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Jul after 25.9 °C 69 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
17 Jul after 26.1 °C 54 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Jul after 26.7 °C 61 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Jul after 26.5 °C 66 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Jul after 26.9 °C 69 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
21 Jul after 26.9 °C 53 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jul after 26.3 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Jul after 25.9 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Jul after 25.7 °C 67 % 31 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.

Before · 29 May 2018
After · 21 Jul 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 · 1,779Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 June 2018 to 14 July 2018 (40 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 June 2018 to 11 July 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 34,526 hectares (345.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered West Arnhem (34,345 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.3 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 11 July 2018 → 14 July 2018.

RSS Changes to this page

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 5 June 2018 to 11 July 2018. 1,779 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.