Camooweal QLD

ABC reports today of a wildfire near Camooweal, near the QLD/NT border, which was brought under control earlier today. It's somewhat rare that these fires in the north directly impact human activity and are reported on in the media...

The story reports that the fire came within 10 km of the main township. It was most active last night and yesterday afternoon and was brought under control this morning. No significant losses were reported, but the fire burnt a considerable amount of grazing land. The fire also closed the highway near the town for a while as well.

The image shows a true colour MODIS view of the fire from the Terra overpass this morning around 1045 LT. The immediate vicinity of Camooweal is visible, just to the WNW of the burn scar. The dimensions of the image are about 200 x 150 km. This was already after it had been brought under control. A few hotspots are still apparent on the image, but the fire is clearly subdued. A very thin, darkly coloured smoke plume is just visible streaming off to the west. The western burnt patch is today's fire. The patch to the east looks to have mainly been active during the previous day or two. Both patches of burnt area together encompass 20 000 to 30 000 ha.

Weather conditions have been fairly typical for the region; most likely high or very high fire danger conditions in the afternoon.