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Ditsobotla fire, 13 July 2020 Ventersdorp/Tlokwe, Ditsobotla

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2020, 12:49 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2020 in Ditsobotla, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,249 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 35th largest in North West since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 17 in South Africa in 2020, of 95.

Burnt area
4,249ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
13 Jul 2020 – 13 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 Jul
2020
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 226 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul13 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

13

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

The weather it burned in

19°high
40km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 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. Ventersdorp/Tlokwe
    2,373 ha reached on 13 Jul
    0.4 %
  2. Ditsobotla where it started
    1,888 ha reached on 13 Jul
    0.3 %

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)
13 Jul 18.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jul after 12.4 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Jul after 15.1 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Jul after 18.6 °C 8 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Jul after 21.4 °C 6 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jul after 22.3 °C 6 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Jul after 22.9 °C 7 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jul after 21.6 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Jul after 21.6 °C 8 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Jul after 20.9 °C 7 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jul after 20.3 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jul 2020
After · 20 Jul 2020

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 · 99Every 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 Ditsobotla fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 July 2020 and 13 July 2020: 1 day 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 4,249 hectares (42.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ventersdorp/Tlokwe (2,373 ha, 0.4 %); Ditsobotla (1,888 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 18.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.