Western Downs fire, 25 December 2019 Western Downs
The fire started on 25 December 2019 in Western Downs, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,248 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 1118th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 534 in Australia in 2019, of 802.
- Burnt area
- 7,248ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 25 Dec 2019 – 6 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 25 Dec
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 633
- in a single hotspot: 83 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.1GW
- sum of detected power
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. Rain came after the fire: 11.4 mm on 12 Jan.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Western Downs where it started7,227 ha reached on 26 Dec0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Dec | 34.4 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 2.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Dec | 32.1 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Dec | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Dec | 34.5 °C | 19 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Dec | 32.9 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Dec | 32.8 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Dec | 36.1 °C | 13 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 1 Jan | 37.4 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Jan | 37.8 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Jan | 36.8 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 4 Jan | 37.0 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 5 Jan | 36.6 °C | 13 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 6 Jan | 35.3 °C | 21 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 7 Jan after | 34.8 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Jan after | 37.7 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 10 Jan after | 36.5 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Jan after | 34.8 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 11.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 · 633Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,664 haWestern Downs7 February 2023 · 7 days · 2 km away
- 7,579 haWestern DownsDecember 2023 · 12 days · 15 km away
- 5,662 haWestern Downs19 July 2023 · 2 days · 25 km away
- 5,345 haWestern DownsAugust 2026 · 9 days · 31 km away
- 6,878 haWestern DownsOctober 2020 · 11 days · 36 km away
- 14,389 haNorth BurnettSeptember 2019 · 6 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Western Downs fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 December 2019 and 6 January 2020: 13 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,248 hectares (72.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Western Downs (7,227 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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
Satellite cross-check
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
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.