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Ghanzi fire, 13 September 2022 Ghanzi

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2022, 12:58 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2022 in Ghanzi, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,845 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 23th largest in Ghanzi since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 19 in Botswana in 2022, of 327.

Burnt area
22,845ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
13 Sept 2022 – 26 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
13 Sept
2022
Heat detections
1,188
in a single hotspot: 187 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
18.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819202122232426

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
58km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 409 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Ghanzi where it started
    22,944 ha reached on 13 Sept
    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)
13 Sept 30.7 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
14 Sept 28.5 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept 29.8 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 31.1 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept 32.2 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 34.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Sept 28.2 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
20 Sept 24.3 °C 16 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
21 Sept 26.0 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept 30.4 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept 35.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Sept 35.2 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
25 Sept 35.6 °C 14 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
26 Sept 34.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Sept after 36.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 34.4 °C 19 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
29 Sept after 32.8 °C 20 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
30 Sept after 34.5 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Oct after 36.5 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Oct after 37.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Oct after 37.7 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Oct after 39.0 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
5 Oct after 38.5 °C 10 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
6 Oct after 38.5 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2022
After · 3 Oct 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 · 1,188Every 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 13 September 2022 and 26 September 2022: 14 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 22,845 hectares (228.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ghanzi (22,944 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, class Very 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.