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Ghanzi fire, 21 August 2021 Ghanzi

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2021, 12:20 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2021 in Ghanzi, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,731 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 169th largest in Ghanzi since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 169 in Botswana in 2021, of 406.

Burnt area
4,731ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
21 Aug 2021 – 24 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
21 Aug
2021
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 180 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

21222324

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
49km/h · peak gust
16%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
    4,789 ha reached on 21 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)
21 Aug 30.7 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Aug 31.8 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Aug 31.3 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Aug 29.7 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug after 31.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 30.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Aug after 33.2 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Aug after 19.2 °C 13 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Aug after 23.7 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Aug after 25.5 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug after 30.1 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept after 32.3 °C 8 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept after 31.8 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Sept after 33.4 °C 16 % 43 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 · 14 Aug 2021
After · 31 Aug 2021

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 · 128Every 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 21 August 2021 and 24 August 2021: 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 4,731 hectares (47.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ghanzi (4,789 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.