Amahlathi fire, August 2024 Amahlathi, Enoch Mgijima, Raymond Mhlaba
The fire started on 18 August 2024 in Amahlathi, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,939 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 41th largest in Eastern Cape since 2016 (of 185 with a page). Number 21 in South Africa in 2024, of 121.
- Burnt area
- 4,939ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 18 Aug 2024 – 21 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 243
- in a single hotspot: 193 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- 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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 485 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Amahlathi where it started3,411 ha reached on 17 Aug0.8 %
-
1,540 ha reached on 17 Aug0.1 %
-
3 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 24.3 °C | 5 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Aug | 25.8 °C | 6 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Aug | 29.4 °C | 7 % | 63 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 21 Aug | 27.0 °C | 5 % | 69 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 22 Aug after | 12.6 °C | 41 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Aug after | 24.4 °C | 18 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Aug after | 25.8 °C | 20 % | 72 km/h | 0.5 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Aug after | 20.0 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Aug after | 24.4 °C | 8 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Aug after | 23.7 °C | 10 % | 90 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 28 Aug after | 13.8 °C | 22 % | 60 km/h | 0.5 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 29 Aug after | 12.3 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Aug after | 16.0 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Aug after | 23.8 °C | 26 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 22 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 85 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 243Every 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 Amahlathi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2024 and 21 August 2024: 4 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 4,939 hectares (49.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Amahlathi (3,411 ha, 0.8 %); Enoch Mgijima (1,540 ha, 0.1 %); Raymond Mhlaba (3 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 69 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (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: 10177 · 112
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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.