Burned area
satellite only309ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 11 Jan 2020 – 12 Jan 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
NZ · New Zealand · –
Whanganui District fire, 11 January 2020 Whanganui District
Out · last detection 12 Jan 2020, 03:08 UTC
The fire started on 11 January 2020 in Whanganui District, New Zealand, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 309 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Manawatu-Wanganui Region since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 20 in New Zealand in 2020, of 23.
The power measured by the satellite is low (21.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
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 only2days
11 Jan 2020 to 12 Jan 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 12 Jan 2020, 03:08 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 only11 Jan 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 11 Jan 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only8
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 22 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 11 Jan 2020 – 12 Jan 2020
+− 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 only115MW
Total radiative power on 12 January 2020; hotspots that day: 8.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 12 Jan 2020
+− 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
model9.3FWI · low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 5.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 11 Jan 2020, 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
model23.1°C · 42% RH
High of 23.1 °C and minimum humidity of 42% on 12 January 2020; gusts of 45 km/h on 12 January 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 11 Jan 2020 – 12 Jan 2020
- 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
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 12 January 2020 → 11 January 2020.
-
· 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
- 309 ha
- Dates
- 11 Jan 2020 – 12 Jan 2020
- Name
- Whanganui District
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/whanganui-district-2020-01?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 whanganui-district-2020-01.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-01-11 | 0 | 0 | 22.4 | 8 | 44 | 16.7 | 37.1 | 0 | 9.3 | bajo | 1 |
| 2020-01-12 | 8 | 115 | 23.1 | 9.9 | 42 | 19 | 45.4 | 0 | 11.5 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-01-13 | 0 | 0 | 18.2 | 11.7 | 82 | 18.1 | 39.6 | 24.4 | 0 | muy_bajo | 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
- 309ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 11 Jan 2020 – 12 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 8
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 115MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
11 Jan12 Jan
How it evolved, day by day
12 Jan 2020 · 115 MW · 8
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
23°high
45km/h · peak gust
42%lowest humidity
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 24.4 mm on 13 Jan.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Whanganui District where it started309 ha reached on 12 Jan0.1 %
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jan | 22.4 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 12 Jan | 23.1 °C | 42 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 13 Jan after | 18.2 °C | 82 % | 40 km/h | 24.4 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 9.3, a minimum humidity of 44% and 5 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 8.
FWI at the start
9.3
Minimum humidity
44 %
Days without rain
5
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Whanganui District fire, 11 January 2020
309 ha
2 days
FWI 9.3
Min. humidity 44 %
Hastings District fire, February 2017
312 ha
1 day
FWI 9.0
Min. humidity 38 %
130 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 6.4 mm on 7 Feb.
Central Hawke's Bay District fire, November 2019
358 ha
1 day
FWI 6.1
Min. humidity 47 %
162 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 10 Nov.
Wairoa District fire, April 2021
302 ha
2 days
FWI 5.3
Min. humidity 46 %
218 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.0 mm on 10 Apr.
Marlborough District fire, September 2022
316 ha
1 day
FWI 6.4
Min. humidity 47 %
248 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.2 mm on 5 Sept.
Manawatu District fire, February 2021
304 ha
2 days
FWI 6.0
Min. humidity 51 %
93 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.8 mm on 10 Feb.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 8. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
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
24.4 mmfirst rain
13 Janthe day after it ended
45km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 12 Jan, and on 13 Jan 24.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
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 · 4 Jan 2020
After · 19 Jan 2020
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 · 8Every 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
- 460 haWhanganui District17 January 2020 · 4 days · 2 km away
- 417 haWhanganui DistrictMarch 2026 · 1 day · 12 km away
- 419 haRuapehu DistrictMay 2025 · 1 day · 13 km away
- 397 haRuapehu DistrictMay 2016 · 5 days · 16 km away
- 435 haSouth Taranaki DistrictNovember 2021 · 1 day · 25 km away
- 511 haSouth Taranaki DistrictMarch 2017 · 1 day · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Whanganui District fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 January 2020 to 12 January 2020 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 January 2020 to 12 January 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 309 hectares (3.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Whanganui District (309 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.1 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of New Zealand (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: 111 · 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: 12 January 2020 → 11 January 2020.
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 12 January 2020 to 12 January 2020. 8 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.