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Epukiro fire, 11 September 2022 Epukiro

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2022, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2022 in Epukiro, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,831 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 45th largest in Omaheke since 2016 (of 61 with a page). Number 72 in Namibia in 2022, of 119.

Burnt area
2,831ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
11 Sept 2022 – 14 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
11 Sept
2022
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
950MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

11121314

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Epukiro where it started
    2,834 ha reached on 11 Sept
    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)
11 Sept 33.0 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Sept 32.5 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Sept 32.3 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Sept 30.8 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept after 31.5 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Sept after 30.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept after 31.7 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 34.0 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept after 29.4 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
20 Sept after 24.4 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Sept after 27.2 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept after 31.7 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Sept after 33.5 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Sept after 35.2 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2022
After · 21 Sept 2022

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 · 100Every 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 Namibia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Epukiro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2022 and 14 September 2022: 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 2,831 hectares (28.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Epukiro (2,834 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Namibia (OCHA COD-AB). 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.

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.

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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 OCHA COD-AB (Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.