Williams fire, 26 October 2016 Collie, Williams, West Arthur
The fire started on 26 October 2016 in Williams, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,905 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 1420th largest in Western Australia since 2016 (of 2718 with a page). Number 214 in Australia in 2016, of 427.
- Burnt area
- 7,905ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 26 Oct 2016 – 30 Oct 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- local government areas
- Started on
- 26 Oct
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 483
- in a single hotspot: 99 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.5GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.6 mm on 10 Nov.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
4,115 ha reached on 26 Oct2.4 %
-
Williams where it started3,227 ha reached on 26 Oct1.4 %
-
594 ha reached on 26 Oct0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Oct | 19.5 °C | 49 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 27 Oct | 21.2 °C | 43 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 28 Oct | 21.1 °C | 44 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 29 Oct | 17.7 °C | 51 % | 67 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 30 Oct | 16.8 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 31 Oct after | 19.1 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 1 Nov after | 20.8 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 2 Nov after | 27.4 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 3 Nov after | 24.2 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Nov after | 23.2 °C | 50 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 5 Nov after | 32.4 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 6 Nov after | 24.2 °C | 54 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 7 Nov after | 19.5 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 8 Nov after | 23.4 °C | 32 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 9 Nov after | 17.6 °C | 49 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 10 Nov after | 18.5 °C | 55 % | 55 km/h | 6.6 mm | Very low 2 |
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 · 483Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Williams fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 October 2016 and 30 October 2016: 5 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 7,905 hectares (79.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Collie (4,115 ha, 2.4 %); Williams (3,227 ha, 1.4 %); West Arthur (594 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 67 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
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.