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West Arnhem fire, 21 June 2019 West Arnhem, Unincorporated NT

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2019, 04:46 UTC

The fire started on 21 June 2019 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,370 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 964th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3514 with a page). Number 246 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Compare with…

Suggestions: West Arnhem · 2018West Arnhem · 2026West Arnhem · 2019West Arnhem · 2017

Burnt area
14,370ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
21 Jun 2019 – 26 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
21 Jun
2019
Heat detections
605
in a single hotspot: 79 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Average daily power
120MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jun26 Jul
26 Jul 2019

How it evolved, day by day

21 Jun 2019 · 3 MW · 3 22 Jun 2019 · 42 MW · 7 23 Jun 2019 · 178 MW · 28 24 Jun 2019 · 292 MW · 60 25 Jun 2019 · 337 MW · 45 26 Jun 2019 · 225 MW · 35 27 Jun 2019 · 136 MW · 14 28 Jun 2019 · 28 MW · 10 29 Jun 2019 · 7 MW · 2 30 Jun 2019 · 6 MW · 2 1 Jul 2019 · 39 MW · 5 2 Jul 2019 · 48 MW · 7 3 Jul 2019 · 61 MW · 17 4 Jul 2019 · 73 MW · 17 5 Jul 2019 · 237 MW · 34 6 Jul 2019 · 381 MW · 48 7 Jul 2019 · 96 MW · 22 8 Jul 2019 · 62 MW · 22 9 Jul 2019 · 141 MW · 19 10 Jul 2019 · 30 MW · 11 11 Jul 2019 · 9 MW · 2 12 Jul 2019 · 17 MW · 4 13 Jul 2019 · 214 MW · 24 14 Jul 2019 · 357 MW · 16 15 Jul 2019 · 209 MW · 28 16 Jul 2019 · 217 MW · 26 17 Jul 2019 · 121 MW · 12 18 Jul 2019 · 1 MW · 1 19 Jul 2019 · 119 MW · 7 20 Jul 2019 · 160 MW · 12 21 Jul 2019 · 28 MW · 7 22 Jul 2019 · 193 MW · 17 23 Jul 2019 · 185 MW · 20 24 Jul 2019 · 33 MW · 11 25 Jul 2019 · 35 MW · 9 26 Jul 2019 · 4 MW · 1
21 Jun 27 Jun 3 Jul 6 Jul 9 Jul 15 Jul 21 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

34°high
48km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,986 ha in 2017, 6,071 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,280 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 9.1% of the area of London (144 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
    14,291 ha reached on 21 Jun
    0.3 %
  2. Unincorporated NT
    181 ha reached on 21 Jun
    0.0 %

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)
21 Jun 30.1 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Jun 29.9 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jun 30.1 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Jun 30.1 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jun 30.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jun 29.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jun 30.3 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jun 30.2 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jun 32.3 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jun 33.5 °C 35 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Jul 32.7 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Jul 31.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jul 31.2 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Jul 30.5 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Jul 30.4 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jul 30.2 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Jul 31.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul 32.1 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Jul 32.4 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Jul 31.6 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jul 31.0 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jul 32.3 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Jul 32.2 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Jul 30.0 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jul 29.4 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Jul 30.7 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Jul 31.0 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Jul 31.1 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Jul 32.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jul 33.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jul 32.3 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jul 32.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jul 32.8 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jul 32.5 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Jul 32.8 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jul 32.1 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Jul after 31.8 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jul after 32.3 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Jul after 32.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jul after 32.8 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul after 32.8 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Aug after 32.5 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Aug after 30.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Aug after 31.1 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Aug after 31.8 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Aug after 32.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jun 2019
After · 2 Aug 2019

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 · 605Every 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 21 June 2019 to 26 July 2019 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 June 2019 to 25 July 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,370 hectares (143.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: West Arnhem (14,291 ha, 0.3 %); Unincorporated NT (181 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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 · 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: 25 July 2019 → 26 July 2019.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 June 2019 to 25 July 2019. 605 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.