Darwin and the surrounding Adelaide River fire weather district are under Extreme fire danger on Thursday, with a 24-hour fire ban across Darwin, Palmerston, Litchfield, Coomalie and Elrundie. It comes a day after a fast-moving bushfire at Blackmore, south of Darwin, burnt structures and brought an Emergency Warning.
The Bureau of Meteorology renewed its fire weather warning for the district at 4:12am ACST. "Hot conditions with moderate to fresh and gusty east to southeast winds result in elevated fire dangers through parts of the Darwin and Adelaide River district," the warning says. The Bureau's fire danger ratings, issued at 5am ACST, put the district at Extreme for both Thursday and Friday, before easing to High over the weekend.
Darwin is forecast to reach 35 degrees after patchy smoke haze this morning, with northeast to southeasterly winds of 20 to 30km/h. Berry Springs, Humpty Doo and Noonamah are forecast to reach 37. The UV index is 11, in the extreme band.
The Blackmore fire was reported on Stockwell Road at 1:40pm ACST on Wednesday. The Emergency Warning issued that afternoon told residents to leave immediately, or shelter indoors if it was no longer safe to leave. A helicopter and at least two fixed-wing aircraft were used on the fire, according to AAP.
“We're seeing flames in excess of 5 metres high and the spotting ahead, which is causing this fire to move incredibly fast," Bushfires NT Acting Chief Fire Control Officer Nathaniel Stanford told ABC Radio Darwin during the afternoon.”
Bushfires NT said structures were impacted as the fire moved towards Mieland Road and Tuey Close, and NT Fire and Rescue Service logged two structure fires on Stockwell Road. No agency has confirmed how many buildings were lost or whether they were homes. "We haven't confirmed all the details on that yet," Stanford said. No injuries have been reported.
By 7:10pm ACST the fire was listed as contained and the alert had dropped to Advice. "Weather conditions have eased on the fire ground and the threat has decreased," the Bushfires NT update said, adding that crews would stay on site for mop-up and patrol and that residual smoke was expected overnight and into Thursday morning.
Further south, a fire on Uralla Road at Katherine East was brought under control on Wednesday afternoon and downgraded to Advice. Crews planned a large back burn along the rail corridor on Wednesday evening, which Bushfires NT warned would put significant smoke over the Katherine township. The Katherine Fire Protection Zone is rated High on Thursday and Friday.
The dry heat has been building for a week. Darwin Airport reached 36.0 degrees last Sunday, the hottest day of 2026 so far in the Bureau's daily observations. Before September, the year's highest was 34.8 on 27 August. On Wednesday the airport recorded 35.1 degrees at 3:30pm with relative humidity of 23 per cent, and a gust of 46km/h earlier in the afternoon. The station has recorded 1.8mm of rain this month, all of it on 7 September.
The Bureau says no further warnings will be issued for Thursday's event, but the situation will be monitored and new warnings issued if necessary. The Bureau rates Friday Extreme as well. A fire ban for Friday had not been declared at the time of publication. Bushfires NT is advising residents in the district to action their bushfire survival plans, monitor securent.nt.gov.au and call Triple Zero in an emergency.
