West Arnhem fire, 2 June 2026 West Arnhem
The fire started on 2 June 2026 in West Arnhem, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,649 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 799th largest in Northern Territory since 2016 (of 3517 with a page). Number 188 in Australia in 2026, of 902.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 16,649ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 2 Jun 2026 – 28 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 2 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 924
- in a single hotspot: 65 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 366MW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,737 ha in 2016, 8,839 ha in 2017, 6,261 ha in 2018, 12,659 ha in 2019, 2,548 ha in 2020, 5,069 ha in 2021, 2,789 ha in 2022, 8,462 ha in 2023, 6,355 ha in 2024, 2,118 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,575 ha that had burned before.
- 6,442 ha West Arnhem fire, August 2019 8,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,987 ha West Arnhem fire, September 2017 44,036 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,396 ha West Arnhem fire, September 2018 6,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,368 ha West Arnhem fire, July 2024 9,554 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha West Arnhem fire, September 2020 6,122 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 started15,589 ha reached on 2 Jun0.3 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Jun | 27.0 °C | 67 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 3 Jun | 27.2 °C | 67 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 4 Jun | 27.7 °C | 61 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 5 Jun | 27.6 °C | 56 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 6 Jun | 27.6 °C | 46 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 Jun | 25.9 °C | 55 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 8 Jun | 27.5 °C | 64 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 9 Jun | 27.7 °C | 60 % | 42 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 10 Jun | 27.9 °C | 59 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 11 Jun | 27.3 °C | 69 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 12 Jun | 27.8 °C | 68 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 13 Jun | 27.7 °C | 64 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 14 Jun | 26.6 °C | 69 % | 45 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Jun | 26.8 °C | 60 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Jun | 27.1 °C | 67 % | 40 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 17 Jun | 27.2 °C | 70 % | 36 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 18 Jun | 27.0 °C | 74 % | 34 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 19 Jun | 26.3 °C | 76 % | 31 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 20 Jun | 27.7 °C | 61 % | 43 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 9 |
| 21 Jun | 27.2 °C | 63 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 22 Jun | 27.3 °C | 62 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 23 Jun | 27.1 °C | 58 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Jun | 27.1 °C | 65 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 Jun | 27.2 °C | 58 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Jun | 27.2 °C | 62 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Jun | 27.1 °C | 57 % | 39 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 28 Jun | 26.8 °C | 59 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Jun after | 27.1 °C | 71 % | 28 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 10 |
| 30 Jun after | 27.2 °C | 71 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 1 Jul after | 27.5 °C | 71 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 2 Jul after | 27.6 °C | 70 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 3 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 69 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 4 Jul after | 26.7 °C | 63 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 5 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 63 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 6 Jul after | 27.5 °C | 58 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 Jul after | 27.5 °C | 55 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Jul after | 27.3 °C | 60 % | 36 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 5 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 924Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 44,036 haWest Arnhem1 September 2017 · 31 days · 19 km away
- 34,526 haWest Arnhem5 June 2018 · 40 days · 19 km away
- 21,079 haWest Arnhem9 September 2019 · 17 days · 20 km away
- 20,623 haWest Arnhem5 July 2016 · 7 days · 20 km away
- 39,113 haWest Arnhem3 June 2026 · 25 days · 23 km away
- 19,417 haWest Arnhem20 July 2024 · 46 days · 25 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 2 June 2026 to 28 June 2026 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 June 2026 to 26 June 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,649 hectares (166.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered West Arnhem (15,589 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
- 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: 26 June 2026 → 28 June 2026.
- Start date: 4 June 2026 → 2 June 2026.
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 4 June 2026 to 26 June 2026. 924 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 2025, 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.