Central NT wildfires

As briefly noted on last national overview (but not apparent on that map), some large fires are currently affects central NT around Tennant Creek. The map below is taken from NAFI.

In the image, purple are the most recent image, red in the last 2 days and blue in the last week.

There are three main areas of fire (in the last week). Several recent fire scars are also noted (green and yellow shading), suggesting this has been an active area for wildfire the last few months.

The largest fire appears to have impacted roughly 200 000 ha. I would hypothesize that the little 'pseudopod' of most recent fires extending southward represents an attempt to 'back burn' – a deliberately lit fire to reduce the fuel ahead of the fire front – using the two highways as natural fire breaks...

The western fire is also large. A crude estimate of 77 000 ha. On the (blurry) MODIS browse image you get over at the Sentinel site, quite a bit of dense smoke is apparent with this fire.

The northernmost fire looks to be largely inactive, although there are a few hotspots on the NE edge of the cluster.

No news items that I have regarding these fires at this time (that I have found...). This would suggest that the fire is burning in open bush and not particularly threatening any human 'values' at this time.