West Arnhem fire, 19 July 2021 West Arnhem
The fire started on 19 July 2021 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 47 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,042 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
It is the 478th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3508 with a page). Number 49 in Australia in 2021, of 460.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 24,042ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 47days
- 19 Jul 2021 – 3 Sept 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 19 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 1,114
- in a single hotspot: 126 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 299MW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,563 ha in 2016, 12,627 ha in 2017, 3,622 ha in 2018, 15,168 ha in 2019, 2,793 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 21,063 ha that had burned before.
- 7,874 ha West Arnhem fire, July 2016 15,613 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,912 ha West Arnhem fire, June 2019 28,013 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,419 ha West Arnhem fire, October 2019 14,277 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,739 ha West Arnhem fire, August 2017 7,310 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,161 ha West Arnhem fire, October 2020 6,803 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 198 ha West Arnhem fire, July 2018 5,051 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 79 ha West Arnhem fire, August 2019 35,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 49 ha West Arnhem fire, September 2017 7,599 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 started24,157 ha reached on 19 Jul0.5 %
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 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jul | 33.7 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Jul | 33.6 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Jul | 33.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Jul | 33.5 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Jul | 33.6 °C | 35 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Jul | 34.3 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Jul | 34.3 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Jul | 34.1 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jul | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jul | 34.3 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Jul | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 30 Jul | 35.1 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jul | 35.6 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Aug | 33.9 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Aug | 33.9 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Aug | 34.5 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Aug | 34.5 °C | 28 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Aug | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Aug | 31.9 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Aug | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 8 Aug | 32.2 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Aug | 32.5 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Aug | 33.4 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Aug | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Aug | 35.2 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Aug | 34.8 °C | 23 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Aug | 32.9 °C | 38 % | 48 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Aug | 34.2 °C | 35 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Aug | 35.6 °C | 25 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Aug | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Aug | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Aug | 34.4 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Aug | 34.2 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Aug | 35.1 °C | 14 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Aug | 36.2 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Aug | 35.3 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Aug | 34.8 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Aug | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Aug | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Aug | 36.2 °C | 15 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Aug | 35.8 °C | 14 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Aug | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 30 Aug | 37.3 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Aug | 36.6 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Sept | 35.5 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Sept | 34.6 °C | 42 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Sept | 35.2 °C | 37 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 35 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 38 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.9 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Sept after | 35.2 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 21 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 8 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 24 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 9 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 30 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 28 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 37 % | 32 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.
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 · 1,114Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 28,013 haWest Arnhem20 June 2019 · 14 days · 10 km away
- 48,961 haWest Arnhem30 July 2021 · 61 days · 29 km away
- 35,883 haWest Arnhem30 August 2019 · 33 days · 32 km away
- 20,708 haWest Arnhem17 July 2019 · 18 days · 34 km away
- 19,056 haWest Arnhem11 October 2023 · 27 days · 38 km away
- 33,593 haWest Arnhem6 October 2019 · 29 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 19 July 2021 to 3 September 2021 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 July 2021 to 3 September 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 24,042 hectares (240.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered West Arnhem (24,157 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.
- Start date: 26 July 2021 → 19 July 2021.
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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 July 2021 to 3 September 2021. 1,114 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.