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West Arnhem fire, 20 July 2019 West Arnhem, Victoria Daly

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2019, 04:08 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2019 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,194 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 462th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3519 with a page). Number 125 in Australia in 2019, of 802.

Compare with…

Suggestions: West Arnhem · 2016West Arnhem · 2026West Arnhem · 2022Victoria Daly · 2020

Burnt area
25,194ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
20 Jul 2019 – 13 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
20 Jul
2019
Heat detections
892
in a single hotspot: 130 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
324MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul13 Aug
13 Aug 2019

How it evolved, day by day

20 Jul 2019 · 3 MW · 3 21 Jul 2019 · 44 MW · 3 24 Jul 2019 · 47 MW · 13 25 Jul 2019 · 742 MW · 23 26 Jul 2019 · 89 MW · 26 27 Jul 2019 · 897 MW · 43 28 Jul 2019 · 556 MW · 51 29 Jul 2019 · 227 MW · 62 30 Jul 2019 · 836 MW · 93 31 Jul 2019 · 474 MW · 55 1 Aug 2019 · 273 MW · 69 2 Aug 2019 · 292 MW · 69 3 Aug 2019 · 414 MW · 84 4 Aug 2019 · 316 MW · 94 5 Aug 2019 · 315 MW · 81 6 Aug 2019 · 447 MW · 62 7 Aug 2019 · 438 MW · 33 8 Aug 2019 · 367 MW · 21 9 Aug 2019 · 6 MW · 1 11 Aug 2019 · 13 MW · 3 13 Aug 2019 · 10 MW · 3
20 Jul 25 Jul 27 Jul 28 Jul 31 Jul 3 Aug 6 Aug 9 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

34°high
52km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,924 ha in 2016, 5,133 ha in 2017, 9,816 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,714 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 16% of the area of London (252 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
    24,938 ha reached on 20 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Victoria Daly
    506 ha reached on 24 Jul
    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)
20 Jul 33.5 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jul 32.7 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Jul 32.5 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jul 32.5 °C 14 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jul 31.8 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Jul 32.4 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Jul 31.7 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul 31.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jul 32.4 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jul 32.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jul 32.6 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul 32.6 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Aug 31.5 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Aug 29.5 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Aug 30.2 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Aug 31.1 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Aug 32.6 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug 33.0 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug 32.2 °C 30 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug 33.1 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Aug 34.2 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Aug 33.6 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug 32.0 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Aug 29.5 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Aug 28.7 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Aug after 30.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Aug after 32.1 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Aug after 32.4 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug after 33.2 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug after 34.2 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug after 33.8 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug after 30.8 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Aug after 30.2 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Aug after 31.9 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Aug after 32.3 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2019
After · 20 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 · 892Every 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 20 July 2019 to 13 August 2019 (25 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 July 2019 to 9 August 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,194 hectares (251.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: West Arnhem (24,938 ha, 0.5 %); Victoria Daly (506 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 9 August 2019 → 13 August 2019.
  2. Start date: 24 July 2019 → 20 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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 July 2019 to 9 August 2019. 892 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.