Burned area
satellite only21,079ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 9 Sept 2019 – 25 Sept 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
AU · Australia · –
West Arnhem fire, 9 September 2019 West Arnhem
Out · last detection 26 Sept 2019, 05:24 UTC
The fire started on 9 September 2019 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,079 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 450th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 2853 with a page). Number 155 in Australia in 2019, of 802.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only17days
9 Sept 2019 to 25 Sept 2019: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 26 Sept 2019, 05:24 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only9 Sept 2019
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 9 Sept 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only780
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 235 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 9 Sept 2019 – 25 Sept 2019
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,020MW
Total radiative power on 14 September 2019; hotspots that day: 212.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 14 Sept 2019
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model29.3FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 9 Sept 2019, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model29.8°C · 31% RH
High of 29.8 °C and minimum humidity of 31% on 9 September 2019; gusts of 51 km/h on 14 September 2019.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 9 Sept 2019 – 25 Sept 2019
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logLast day with fire: 20 September 2019 → 25 September 2019.
-
logStart date: 10 September 2019 → 9 September 2019.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 21,079 ha
- Dates
- 9 Sept 2019 – 25 Sept 2019
- Name
- West Arnhem
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/west-arnhem-2019-09-3?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire west-arnhem-2019-09-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-09-09 | 2 | 2 | 29.8 | 22.2 | 31 | 16 | 32 | 0 | 29.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-10 | 11 | 80 | 28.2 | 21.1 | 29 | 24.6 | 49.3 | 0 | 37.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-11 | 55 | 1,958 | 27.5 | 20.5 | 34 | 22.6 | 43.2 | 0 | 36.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-12 | 95 | 857 | 27.2 | 20.3 | 44 | 23.1 | 45.4 | 0 | 33.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-13 | 149 | 1,599 | 27.4 | 20.7 | 42 | 23 | 44.3 | 0 | 33.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-14 | 212 | 2,020 | 27.6 | 21.4 | 40 | 25.9 | 50.8 | 0 | 36.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-15 | 49 | 1,139 | 26.5 | 21.3 | 47 | 23.7 | 49.3 | 0 | 31.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-16 | 26 | 150 | 26.4 | 21.2 | 55 | 18.7 | 37.4 | 0 | 24.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-17 | 57 | 322 | 27.1 | 21.6 | 54 | 20.8 | 40.7 | 0 | 26.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-18 | 33 | 346 | 28.2 | 22.3 | 40 | 21.8 | 43.2 | 0 | 29.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-19 | 19 | 118 | 27.8 | 21.7 | 50 | 17.6 | 37.1 | 0 | 26.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-20 | 6 | 75 | 27.1 | 21.6 | 59 | 13.3 | 28.1 | 0 | 20.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-09-21 | 7 | 36 | 27.6 | 22.4 | 61 | 16.1 | 33.1 | 0 | 21.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-09-22 | 17 | 93 | 28.9 | 23.8 | 59 | 18.9 | 37.8 | 0 | 23.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-23 | 28 | 237 | 28.7 | 24.8 | 58 | 23.5 | 48.2 | 0 | 26.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-24 | 10 | 79 | 28.7 | 24.2 | 57 | 15.3 | 33.8 | 0 | 21.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-25 | 3 | 17 | 28.4 | 24.1 | 54 | 22.6 | 45 | 0 | 26 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-09-26 | 1 | 4 | 28.3 | 23.1 | 52 | 27.8 | 50.4 | 0 | 29.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-09-27 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 23.6 | 47 | 21.5 | 43.2 | 0 | 27.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-09-28 | 0 | 0 | 28.2 | 23.5 | 60 | 15 | 31.7 | 0 | 21.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-09-29 | 0 | 0 | 28.6 | 23.2 | 61 | 13 | 30.2 | 0 | 20.3 | moderado | 0 |
| 2019-09-30 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 23.9 | 63 | 11.8 | 29.5 | 0 | 19.1 | moderado | 0 |
| 2019-10-01 | 0 | 0 | 29.5 | 24 | 57 | 19 | 40 | 0 | 23.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-10-02 | 0 | 0 | 29.4 | 23.6 | 57 | 14.9 | 32 | 0 | 21 | moderado | 0 |
| 2019-10-03 | 0 | 0 | 29.2 | 24.6 | 56 | 22.2 | 44.3 | 0 | 25.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-10-04 | 0 | 0 | 29.6 | 24.2 | 49 | 19.9 | 40.7 | 0 | 26.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-10-05 | 0 | 0 | 28.6 | 24.3 | 53 | 22.3 | 43.9 | 0 | 27.9 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 21,079ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 9 Sept 2019 – 25 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 9 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 780
- in a single hotspot: 235 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 507MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
9 Sept25 Sept
26 Sept 2019
How it evolved, day by day
9 Sept
14 Sept
17 Sept
21 Sept
25 Sept
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
30°high
51km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,420 ha in 2016, 17,432 ha in 2017, 15,051 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,653 ha that had burned before.
- 16,227 ha West Arnhem fire, September 2017 44,036 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,368 ha West Arnhem fire, September 2018 22,362 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 59 ha West Arnhem fire, September 2018 6,785 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 started21,097 ha reached on 9 Sept0.4 %
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 2020Built-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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 34 % of the area in Australia
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Sept | 29.8 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Sept | 28.2 °C | 29 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Sept | 27.5 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Sept | 27.2 °C | 44 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Sept | 27.4 °C | 42 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Sept | 27.6 °C | 40 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Sept | 26.5 °C | 47 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Sept | 26.4 °C | 55 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Sept | 27.1 °C | 54 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Sept | 28.2 °C | 40 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Sept | 27.8 °C | 50 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 20 Sept | 27.1 °C | 59 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Sept | 27.6 °C | 61 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Sept | 28.9 °C | 59 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Sept | 28.7 °C | 58 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Sept | 28.7 °C | 57 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 25 Sept | 28.4 °C | 54 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Sept after | 28.3 °C | 52 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 47 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 28 Sept after | 28.2 °C | 60 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Sept after | 28.6 °C | 61 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 63 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 1 Oct after | 29.5 °C | 57 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Oct after | 29.4 °C | 57 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 3 Oct after | 29.2 °C | 56 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Oct after | 29.6 °C | 49 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Oct after | 28.6 °C | 53 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 29.3, a minimum humidity of 31% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.
FWI at the start
29.3
Minimum humidity
31 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · West Arnhem fire, 9 September 2019
21,079 ha
17 days
FWI 29.3
Min. humidity 31 %
West Arnhem fire, July 2018
5,259 ha
13 days
FWI 32.7
Min. humidity 31 %
72 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
West Arnhem fire, July 2024
9,554 ha
34 days
FWI 32.8
Min. humidity 30 %
14 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Tiwi Islands fire, July 2020
6,193 ha
12 days
FWI 28.1
Min. humidity 34 %
173 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Unincorporated NT fire, August 2020
11,328 ha
12 days
FWI 31.4
Min. humidity 33 %
245 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Unincorporated NT fire, August 2017
8,025 ha
17 days
FWI 31.0
Min. humidity 35 %
144 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 17 days
- median duration
- 8,370 ha
- median area
- 32 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.6 mm
- rain at the end (median; 5 of 22 had it)
It was 2.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 17 days, against 17 days.
Only 2 of its 22 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 17 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.6 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
51km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 25 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 5 of 22, with a median of 1.6 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 2 Sept 2019
After · 2 Oct 2019
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 780Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 44,036 haWest Arnhem1 September 2017 · 31 days · 5 km away
- 22,362 haWest Arnhem25 September 2018 · 39 days · 8 km away
- 19,417 haWest Arnhem20 July 2024 · 46 days · 10 km away
- 34,526 haWest Arnhem5 June 2018 · 40 days · 36 km away
- 30,572 haWest Arnhem3 June 2026 · 25 days · 39 km away
- 20,623 haWest Arnhem5 July 2016 · 7 days · 39 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 9 September 2019 to 25 September 2019 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 September 2019 to 20 September 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,079 hectares (210.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered West Arnhem (21,097 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 17 days and their median area 8,370 ha; 32 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 22 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 17 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.6 mm.
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 → 25 September 2019.
- Start date: 10 September 2019 → 9 September 2019.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 September 2019 to 20 September 2019. 780 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.