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Ghanzi fire, 31 August 2017 Ghanzi

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2017, 12:45 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2017 in Ghanzi, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 289th largest in Ghanzi since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 133 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,028ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
31 Aug 2017 – 2 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
31 Aug
2017
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
565MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3112

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
44km/h · peak gust
13%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. Ghanzi where it started
    3,038 ha reached on 31 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
31 Aug 32.6 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Sept 32.6 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 29.9 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Sept after 27.3 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Sept after 26.6 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Sept after 27.8 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Sept after 30.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept after 33.0 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept after 33.8 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept after 34.3 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Sept after 34.0 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Sept after 34.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Sept after 33.2 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2017
After · 9 Sept 2017

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 · 67Every 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 Botswana ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ghanzi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2017 and 2 September 2017: 3 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 3,028 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ghanzi (3,038 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Botswana (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.

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 geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.