West Arnhem fire, 21 August 2019 West Arnhem
The fire started on 21 August 2019 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,787 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 790th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3519 with a page). Number 201 in Australia in 2019, of 802.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 16,787ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 38days
- 21 Aug 2019 – 27 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 753
- in a single hotspot: 213 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 274MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,482 ha in 2016, 4,654 ha in 2017, 13,882 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,936 ha that had burned before.
- 13,471 ha West Arnhem fire, June 2018 34,526 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,442 ha West Arnhem fire, July 2016 20,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,441 ha West Arnhem fire, June 2016 5,014 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
West Arnhem where it started16,714 ha reached on 21 Aug0.3 %
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 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 0.20 hectares of 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 Aug | 27.0 °C | 40 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Aug | 26.8 °C | 50 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Aug | 25.3 °C | 59 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 24 Aug | 25.2 °C | 54 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Aug | 25.3 °C | 60 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Aug | 26.0 °C | 53 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 27 Aug | 26.9 °C | 52 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 28 Aug | 26.9 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Aug | 26.4 °C | 36 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Aug | 26.3 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Aug | 25.1 °C | 54 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Sept | 25.9 °C | 54 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Sept | 26.8 °C | 48 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Sept | 26.6 °C | 51 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Sept | 26.5 °C | 49 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Sept | 25.3 °C | 62 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 6 Sept | 25.4 °C | 70 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 7 Sept | 25.7 °C | 68 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Sept | 27.1 °C | 51 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Sept | 26.2 °C | 50 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Sept | 27.3 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Sept | 27.1 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Sept | 26.9 °C | 50 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Sept | 26.8 °C | 49 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Sept | 27.0 °C | 49 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Sept | 26.3 °C | 52 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Sept | 26.4 °C | 57 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Sept | 26.7 °C | 57 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Sept | 26.1 °C | 60 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Sept | 25.9 °C | 69 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 Sept | 25.3 °C | 76 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 21 Sept | 25.8 °C | 72 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 22 Sept | 27.1 °C | 73 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 23 Sept | 27.8 °C | 67 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 24 Sept | 27.4 °C | 67 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 25 Sept | 28.0 °C | 58 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Sept | 27.9 °C | 58 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 27 Sept | 27.1 °C | 66 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 28 Sept after | 26.9 °C | 71 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 76 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 30 Sept after | 26.7 °C | 78 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 1 Oct after | 28.2 °C | 68 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Oct after | 27.4 °C | 70 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 3 Oct after | 28.2 °C | 61 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 4 Oct after | 27.7 °C | 58 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Oct after | 27.8 °C | 59 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Oct after | 27.3 °C | 67 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Oct after | 26.6 °C | 73 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
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 · 753Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 34,526 haWest Arnhem5 June 2018 · 40 days · 10 km away
- 39,113 haWest Arnhem3 June 2026 · 25 days · 11 km away
- 20,623 haWest Arnhem5 July 2016 · 7 days · 14 km away
- 21,073 haWest Arnhem26 June 2020 · 39 days · 22 km away
- 21,079 haWest Arnhem9 September 2019 · 17 days · 30 km away
- 44,036 haWest Arnhem1 September 2017 · 31 days · 31 km away
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 August 2019 to 27 September 2019 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 August 2019 to 20 September 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,787 hectares (167.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered West Arnhem (16,714 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 20 September 2019 → 27 September 2019.
- Start date: 25 August 2019 → 21 August 2019.
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
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 25 August 2019 to 20 September 2019. 753 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.
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.