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Bushbuckridge fire, August 2016 Thaba Chweu, Bushbuckridge

Out · last detection 31 Aug 2016, 23:39 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2016 in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,397 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Mpumalanga since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 11 in South Africa in 2016, of 71.

Burnt area
6,397ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
25 Aug 2016 – 31 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2016
Heat detections
240
in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293031

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

26°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Thaba Chweu
    3,896 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.7 %
  2. Bushbuckridge where it started
    2,527 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
25 Aug 22.4 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Aug 24.4 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug 21.6 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Aug 24.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Aug 25.2 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Aug 26.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Aug 23.1 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept after 21.5 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Sept after 22.4 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Sept after 23.7 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Sept after 22.9 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Sept after 26.0 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Sept after 28.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Sept after 27.1 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Sept after 25.6 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Sept after 30.6 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept after 16.7 °C 59 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 18 Aug 2016
After · 7 Sept 2016

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 · 240Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Africa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bushbuckridge fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2016 and 31 August 2016: 7 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 6,397 hectares (64.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Thaba Chweu (3,896 ha, 0.7 %); Bushbuckridge (2,527 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 10177 · 112.

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.